It’s impossible to completely avoid germs, but when you’re trapped with them at 35,000 feet you might want to know where they like to hang out the most. The dirtiest place, it turns out, is right in front of your seat.
A recent experiment, from travel time calculator Travelmath, had a microbiologist collect 26 samples from five different airports and four different flights to see where the most germs actually lived on an aeroplane. Surprisingly, the flush button and door locks in the lavatory were some of the cleaner surfaces sampled on all four flights. The tray table, however, was found to be the nastiest place for germs on each plane. Coming up behind the tray tables was drinking fountain buttons in the airports themselves. Fortunately, none of the 26 samples contained faecal coliforms like E.coli. There are a couple things you can do to help avoid germs on an aeroplane, proper hand hygiene being the number one priority. Still, you might want to rethink setting food, tablets, and children’s toys directly on the tray table for your own peace of mind. You can learn more about the methodology at the link below.
Airline Hygiene Exposed [Travelmath via Mashable]