Bacteria in the plane Folding tables the dirtiest

Germs and bacteria lurk everywhere and feel great especially where there is a lot of food, moisture and heat. Accordingly, they are in certain locations such as e.g. Especially common in the kitchen or in the bathroom. But what about the germ load in the aircraft? This question is now the travel platform "Travelmath.com" asked and came in a test to surprising results.

26 samples tested in the laboratory
Thousands of people move in airports and airplanes every day, so bacteria have an easy time. But who thinks first about toilets or door openers, is wrong. Because, as the travel platform "Travelmath.com" reports, the germ burden in very different places is particularly high - and that is where most people expect them the least.

Picture: kasto - fotolia

Only 70 colony-forming units on door latches of airport toilets
According to the site's owners, they hired a microbiologist to collect 26 samples at five airports and in four aircraft, which were then sent to the lab for analysis. It turned out that, contrary to expectations, the door latches of the airport toilets were the cleanest - even though they were touched daily by thousands of hands, some of them unwashed. Here, 70 colony-forming units (CFU) could be detected, while the toilet seat in an average household, e.g. already comes to about 172 cfu, the report said.

Colony Forming Units (CFUs) are one size used to determine the number of fungi and bacteria that can grow on artificial culture media per unit volume.

Sanitary facilities are apparently cleaned often enough
On the other hand, the seat belts and buttons on the air vents with a load of 230 or 285 cfu were somewhat dirtier. The rinsing button of the toilet in the aircraft had been detected in the analysis 265 CFU, which, according to "TravelMath" but a good sign. Because the small number of germs show that the sanitary facilities would be cleaned more often than the rest of the aircraft - which is usually cleaned only once a day.

This fact is made clear by looking at the dirtiest place on the plane by far. Because these are the investigation after by far the fold-out plastic tables, where the testers according to "Travelmath" 2155 KBE could prove. "This study shows the need to clean the folding tables between flights," the report said.

Even the buttons of the water dispensers at airports are with 1240 KBE almost five times dirtier than the toilet flushes in the aircraft, the operators continue.

Use hands-on disinfectants for surfaces during the journey
"Surprisingly, it's the one surface our food is lying on - the tray table - which is the dirtiest of all tested locations and surfaces. As this increases the risk of bacterial transmission through the mouth, the best way to stop eating food that has had direct contact with the table is to eat it. It is also advisable to use hand disinfectants for any other dirty surfaces they come into contact with during their travels "is the tip of" Travelmath ". (No)