When you're planning your holiday travel (or travel at any time of year for that matter) it's worth knowing how to avoid catching and spreading germs, so consider the words of Lahey Clinic physician Dr.
Mark Gendreau...
"The risk of contracting a contagious illness is heightened when we travel within any enclosed space, especially during the winter months, when most of the respiratory viruses thrive.
" In fact, you may have seen the New England Journal of Medicine stories over the last few years on airline passengers who spread some pretty serious illnesses to fellow passengers.
The closed, compact space of an airplane cabin appears to be an excellent breeding ground for some pretty impressive germs.
Germs like E.
coli, salmonella, coliform, rotavirus, cold virus and the highly publicized form of staph known as MRSA.
And while all of these can be picked up from any public place, not just the airport, the busier the location, the more likely many germs are also present.
Of course there are times when it isn't practical to avoid the germ factories we've come to know airplanes to be, or stay away from the crowds at stores or theaters.
So if you are travelling, or going to another of these crowded places, what can you do to stay healthy? Here are five smart tips right from the experts...
1) Sit toward the front of the plane.
"Pick a seat near the front, since ventilation systems on most commercial aircraft provide better air flow in the front of the aircraft," Dr.
Gendreau advises.
If you can afford it, first class or business class is the healthier option, as passengers aren't packed together as tightly as on other parts of the aircraft.
2) Don't drink airplane made coffee or tea, as the water used to make these drinks, though heated, comes from water tanks that even the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) admits aren't the cleanest.
What's more, the water needs to be kept at a roiling boil for a full minute to kill dangerous pathogens and this doesn't happen when these beverages are prepared on a plane.
3) Sanitize your hands after leaving an airplane restroom (this goes for airport restrooms too) as the facilities on a plane are "among the germiest that you'll encounter almost anywhere," according to Charles Gerba, an environmental microbiologist at the University of Arizona.
Known as "Dr.
Germ", he notes that E.
coli is always found on surfaces in airplane restrooms.
Washing with the water in the restroom isn't much help due to those germ filled water tanks, and the door handle you'll use on the way out is full of microscopic organisms that come from all those pairs of hands, washed and unwashed.
A dose of hand sanitizer once you return to your seat is the best protection.
4) Sanitize, or wash, your hands after using an airport escalator (or any escalator for that matter) as tests have shown that these handrails are full of germs.
To get an idea...
spend five minutes counting the number of people who use that escalator, multiply by 12 and you'll have the number per hour.
Every one of them is potentially carrying, and leaving, germs on the handrail just waiting to be picked up by you.
Once you get off the escalator, as soon as you have an opportunity sanitize or wash your hands.
5) Sanitize, or wash, your hands after using an airport ATM (or any busy ATM), as these keypads are covered with germs - the busier the place, the more germs are probably on the machine.
The smart move is to sanitize your hands after using one.
If you touch a potentially infected object and then rub your eye, nose or mouth, you've just given bacteria a free ride into your body.
The best advice for staying germ (and hopefully illness) free as your travel or shop at busy malls is a sensible regimen of hand washing.
This means soaping your hands well, scrubbing rigorously for at least 17 seconds, rinsing your hands under running hot water, pointing fingers downward and then drying using a clean paper towel.
This will dramatically reduce the risk of catching or spreading germs.