Beware – nasty bugs lurk on airport security trays
IT is bad news for holidaymakers already dreading the slow trudge through airport security.
Airport trays, as well as being an annoyance, also harbour nasty cold and flu bugs from the thousands who use them daily.
Scientists who swabbed the trays found half carried respiratory viruses including rhinovirus, which causes the common cold, and influenza A.
Experts say ill passengers may be using handkerchiefs and tissues, which they put in their pockets, before removing metallic items such as keys and phones to put in the trays. This will then expose other holidaymakers to the bugs. Jonathan Van-Tam, professor of health protection at the University of Nottingham, which carried out the research with the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare, said: ‘People can help to minimise contagion by hygienic hand washing and coughing into a handkerchief, tissue or sleeve at all times – but especially in public places.’ And Professor Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University, who was not involved in the study, said: ‘There is a risk of passing on these viruses, especially during flu season, to other people using the trays and more so to airport staff.
‘There may be other viruses on the trays, like norovirus, which can’t be tested for.’
Researchers found evidence of viruses on ten per cent of the airport surfaces they examined. These included shop payment terminals, staircase rails, passport-checking counters and children’s play areas.
Swabs were collected at Helsinki-Vantaa airport, Finland’s main airport, at the height of flu season in February 2016.
Evidence of viruses was found on four out of eight airport trays tested.
The study, published in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases, concludes that security screening trays pose the ‘highest potential risk’ of any surface in an airport.
The researchers recommended that alcohol-based hand sanitisers be installed in airports for passenger use before and after security screening.