Short Wave - One Of The Germiest Places In The Airport

Episode Date: December 26, 2019

Hint: it's not the bathroom. Niina Ikonen and Carita Savolainen-Kopra from the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare studied high-traffic areas in the Helsinki airport to identify where germs were most prevalent. Also, tips on how to stay healthy during your holiday travel. Here's their original paper in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases. Follow host Maddie Sofia on Twitter @maddie_sofia. Email the show at [e-mail]. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Maddie Safaya here. So maybe by now you've completed at least one leg of your holiday travel. Me, I was just at the airport a couple of weeks ago, but I kind of wish I had known about today's episode before that. Maybe you were more comfortable at the airport if you didn't know that you didn't. That's a good point. You're right. Maybe it's good point. You're right. Maybe it's good.

So let me introduce you to Nina. I'm Nina Ikonen. Nina and her colleague. This is Karita Savola and Kophrat. Karita are microbiologists in Helsinki. In Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. And a couple of years back, they got to thinking about how we don't have a ton of scientific studies looking at how infectious disease spreads in what Nina and Karita called major hubs, ports, train stations, airports, where we spent a lot of time.

during the holidays. So they worked out a study to look at germs in their hometown airport in Helsinki. And you should remember that even though we have just looked at the airports, in Christmas time we have to remember that all malls. When we go to the Christmas shopping and there is very much frequently touched places, people with coughing. Yeah, this is also high time for us, then this is also high time for viruses. Yes.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I try not to go to the malls at all. That's my approach. So today we'll talk about how to keep yourself healthy while you're out there making holiday moves, mall or otherwise. And the location Nina and Corita say is one of the germier places in the airport. So the first thing about this study is it's really small. So keep that in mind. Karita and Nina made it clear that it's a preliminary study and that they want to do more studies like it. But like we said earlier, it's one of the very few studies looking at,

germs specifically in airports. So let's talk about it. The study was done at Helsinki's main airport, which is the largest airport in Finland, in the winter of 2016, a very germy time. Nina and Corito were part of a team looking specifically for respiratory viruses like the cold and the flu. And they wanted to point out to me that Helsinki is a pretty nice airport. It is also the point where a passenger travels through when they call, for example,

in other European countries. Yeah, we felt that we would catch quite a large number of passengers going through. Yes. So Nina, Karita and some colleagues analyzed the airport to find the most frequently touched surfaces. And where the passenger

density is high. They zeroed in on stairs, elevators, bathrooms, security checkpoints, a kid's play area, and tested those surfaces multiple times a day. That the time peaks when the passenger is highest, the early morning peak and the noon peak and mid-afternoon peak.

You know, those times of day when you especially love being in the airport. In a way, we caught the most dirty times of the days. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So let's go to the thing that I think most people are going to be wondering, which is which parts of the airport, you know, should I not be touching my face right after? Should I not be like licking my hands after I go through? Well, of course, the children play crown, because we know that children, even though they are not symptomatic, has some virus infection. So yeah, okay, we know this. Children are petri dishes. But there's another germy spot that you might not think about as you make your way through the airport.

The places where we found most of the viruses, the plastic security trays. Those plastic trays for your laptop or your shoes at the security checkpoint. Now, this was a small sample in a single airport, but in half of the trays Nina and Kurita analyzed, they found signs of respiratory viruses, such as rhinovirus, aka the common cold, and a strain of the flu. Because if you think about trays, go through all the time and many passengers have to touch, you haven't enough time to wash all the trays. And it's something that you really can't avoid touching and people are standing there and queuing and they are sneezing and coughing at the same time as the trays are open there.

And also in many of the trays, there are several surfaces where there are some cavities there. Yes. Right. And I don't necessarily know this, but I anticipate that in a lot of airports, those aren't cleaned frequently as they're going around. Yes, because you don't know which one of us has an infection. we can be infected by influenza virus, even though we haven't yet symptoms. So if we want to be sure we should wash the trays all the time after each touch. And I think it's impossible to do it.

So security tray, germy. Actually, germier in terms of respiratory viruses than the toilets that Nina and Karita tested. So what happens when you're going to. through security and you just touched a tray that is definitely nasty. Well, you might reach for hand sanitizer, one of those little travel-sized ones where the active ingredient is alcohol. Not a bad option, but not the best. The CDC recommends washing hands with soap and water whenever possible because it reduces the amounts of all types of germs and chemicals on your little paws. Some germs that hand sanitizers aren't so good at killing. If hand sanitizer is your only option, use one with

at least 60% alcohol and make sure you're using enough of it. So basically the means that you can do are those that were taught in all homes by parents that you have to wash your hands and not touch your mouth. And in order to protect your environment and others not to cough and sneeze on your hand and also not to shake hands in order to mitigate your risk. Because wherever there are people, there will be infections and there will be pathogens. Pathogens are everywhere, people. A holiday message from Shortwave.

All right, well, this was fun. I appreciate you both. Have a good day. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Thanks so much to Nina Ekonen and Karita Savalayanan Kopa at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.

And to the folks at YLE News in Helsinki. This episode was produced by Britt Hansen and Brett Bachman and edited by Viet Le. I'm Maddie Safaya and we're back tomorrow with more share. shortwave from NPR.