{"id":4854,"date":"2023-10-04T06:53:26","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T11:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=4854"},"modified":"2023-10-04T06:53:28","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T11:53:28","slug":"just-how-germy-are-airplanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2023\/10\/04\/just-how-germy-are-airplanes\/","title":{"rendered":"Just how germy are airplanes?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/travel\/2023\/10\/03\/germiest-spots-plane-tray-table\/\">Washington Post<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On a flight from Canc\u00fan to Orlando, I didn\u2019t notice any bodily fluids caked on the seat or coursing down the aisle, a relief after<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/travel\/2023\/09\/07\/delta-flight-diarrhea-air-canada-vomit-seat\/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0several recent incidents<\/a>\u00a0involving excretions. But gross organisms are not always visible. Most likely, I was sitting in a pool of germs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With a quick swab test, I confirmed this suspicion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFail,\u201d read the germ-detection device for nine out of 10 high-touch points in the plane\u2019s main cabin and lavatories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cStuff that has more human interaction is going to have some level of germs,\u201d said Meikel Brewster, executive vice president of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.charm.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Charm Sciences<\/a>&nbsp;in Massachusetts, which manufactures the rapid diagnostic tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Airplane cleaning practices are not federally regulated. The Federal Aviation Administration does not dictate cleaning protocols. The\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/quarantine\/air\/managing-sick-travelers\/commercial-aircraft\/infection-control-cabin-crew.html\" target=\"_blank\">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>\u00a0offers guidance on how to clean contaminated areas and prevent the spread of disease if a passenger is ill and possibly contagious. Neither agency covers best practices for non-urgent situations, such as when a person sneezes on the seat back, dribbles barbecue sauce on the tray table or rubs their cheek against the window shade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Passenger airlines devise their own sanitation procedures. Delta Air Lines, which last month turned back a plane when a passenger suffered a severe case of diarrhea, said its \u201cclean ambassadors\u201d remove trash, disinfect surfaces and restock lavatories on flights grounded for four hours or less. Its planes receive a deep cleaning overnight. This summer, it cleaned nearly 60 million seats and used 12,500 gallons of disinfectant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve dedicated even more resources to those efforts with an entire department, Delta\u2019s Global Cleanliness Division, which is fully devoted to improving cleanliness across our operation,\u201d said Drake X. Casta\u00f1eda, a Delta spokesman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/travel\/2023\/10\/03\/germiest-spots-plane-tray-table\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington Post On a flight from Canc\u00fan to Orlando, I didn\u2019t notice any bodily fluids caked on the seat or coursing down the aisle, a relief after\u00a0several recent incidents\u00a0involving excretions. But gross organisms are not always visible. Most likely, I was sitting in a pool of germs. With a quick swab test, I confirmed this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":4855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coping-with-covid"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-04-at-07.52.43.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4856,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4854\/revisions\/4856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}