After getting off the plane, especially long-haul, chemist expert and cosmetics company founder Bruce Green advised tourists not to search the bar for drinks in a hotel room but to take a shower first. The reason for the urgency is the bacteria and viruses that live in airplanes.
As the British newspaper Express clarified, the specialist meant the risks of catching an infection due to viruses and bacteria, as a rule, inhabiting the surfaces of the cabin of an airliner. The latter has been proved more than once by doctors and flight attendants. For example, a 29-year-old flight attendant from Argentina previously warned about the three dirtiest places on the plane, which she herself tries to avoid and advises travelers to do the same. This is the floor in the toilet, seat pockets and trash cans.
“If I had to choose the three dirtiest places on a plane, I would put the toilet floor first. Many people go there without shoes, I can't believe it. In second place are the seat pockets, I've seen passengers put disgusting things in there, and the cleanliness in this place has always been questionable. And in third place are trash cans. When the cleaning team gets on the planes, they never clean the trash cans, so imagine what you might find there,” the employee added.
“Airplanes have their own microbiome, which mostly consists of human skin, because we constantly “shed” and sit inside for quite a long time,” Green confirmed. “Although aircraft are being cleaned, studies have shown that bacteria and viruses can survive on armrests, seat belts, window shades, tray tables, toilet handles and other surfaces for several days.”
The chemist assured that taking a shower after a flight is especially important after long flights. However, even at short distances, the ritual of purity should not be neglected. Green explained that microbes on the skin actively multiply during long flights, which can lead to an unpleasant smell emanating from the tourist. In addition, an accidental infection with foreign bacteria or fungi can cause itching and bumps on the scalp. “Showering with soap and shampoo removes all the germs that you can pick up on an airliner and reduces the number of your own germs, which periodically also increases,” he concluded.
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