The holidays are prime travel time for so many of us. We know that to avoid getting sick we need to wash our hands as often as possible, but a CNN Health article about places germs lurk may surprise you.
How often do you sanitize your hands after using an ATM?
Possibly never, says the article, but think of how many people's fingers touch those same few keys in a day -- or even an hour.
Same thing for an escalator -- we rarely think to wash our hands after using one, but hundreds of hands can touch an escalator in just a few hours, especially at a busy airport or train station.
Did you know to sit near the front of an airplane? Ventilation systems provide better circulation there, said the article's expert. And opt for bottled water or soda instead of airplane coffee or tea: "While boiling water for one minute will remove pathogens from drinking water, the water used to prepare coffee and tea aboard a plane is not generally brought to a sufficiently high temperature to guarantee that pathogens are killed," says the EPA's Web site.
Here's a link to the full article:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/11/27/ep.avoid.germs.traveling/index.html