Air travel has spawned a cottage industry of products to help us avoid getting sick.
Stress, dry air, germy bins and toilets — stock up on sanitizer for that holiday trip
In terms of health outcomes, air travel can feel like as much of a gamble as hosting a children’s party, or buying a ticket to an Adam Sandler movie. In fact, getting sick in the days following a flight is common enough that it has inspired a veritable cottage industry of related products: everything from dietary supplements to antibacterial agents.
As Canadians enter holiday travel season, Postmedia News talks to the Université de Montréal’s George Szatmari, a professor in the department of microbiology, infectious disease and immunology, to find out why planes can make us sick and what can be done to prevent it.
(Where additional scientific data is available, it’s indicated by an “ASD.”) Postmedia News: Why can air travel make us sick? G.S.: Stress can affect your immune system, making you more susceptible to getting infections … You’re also in a confined area with lots of people. All it takes is someone two rows behind you to sneeze up in the air and they’re projecting all these lovely germs. PN: Recirculated air is often fingered as a culprit. Any basis to that? G.S.: The theory is that if the air is very dry, it makes small fissures inside your nasal cavity, making it easier for viruses to get in. And inside an airplane, it does tend to be dryer. ASD: A 2005 report by the World Health Organization concluded that the risk of contractingrespiratoryinfection on a flight was no greater than on a bus or train. And a 2007 study in the journal Lancet noted that the air on a modern plane is exchanged 15 to 20 times an hour, versus just five in the average home and 12 in the average office building. Researchers said risk was further minimized by a plane’s airflow occurring top to bottom — meaning that passengers “share air” with fewer people. PN: What about toilets? G.S.: They obviously clean bathrooms to the best of their ability, but they can’t clean everything … On the average flight, about 50 people will use one particular washroom. PN: And the seat tray? G.S.: It’s a high traffic area for hands — and hands are the main agents for transmitting germs … But for bacteria to grow, they need a food source; they need moisture. You’re not going to have that on a seat tray. There’s a chance you could still have germs f rom the previous flight on there. But from a week ago? Probably not. ASD: A 2007 University of Arizona study detected the superbug Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus on 60 per cent of tray tables in a sample of three airliners. PN: Any other surfaces of which travellers should be wary? G.S.: The overhead bins. Everybody touches them. Then there are the aisle seats: People tend to grab onto them for support, so those are highcontact areas versus window seats. ASD: A 2010 Centers for Disease Control investigation of an inflight norovirus outbreak concluded that passengers in aisle seats faced a higher statistical risk of getting sick due to person-to-person contact or environmental contamination. PN: What can we do for protection? G.S.: An obvious one is hand sanitizer. It also can’t hurt to wipe things down with a disinfecting wipe, especially if it’s a long flight.