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Away on business: How to avoid in-flight colds
Chicago, Oct 02: The flight is packed, the bone-dry air is recirculating in the cabin and someone five rows away is having a coughing fit.
Chicago, Oct 02: The flight is packed, the bone-dry air is recirculating in the cabin and someone five rows away is having a coughing fit.
What can a traveler do to guard against something as common as the everyday cold or as stealthy as SARS in the elbow-to-elbow confinement of an airline cabin?
There seems to be general agreement, according to a number of experts consulted, that air travelers are at higher risk for colds and other microbial or viral infections, perhaps simply because of the close quarters involved.
The suggested countermeasures are simple, ranging from washing your hands and not touching your face to bringing along your own pillow and perhaps using saline solutions to cleanse the nose.
A study from the University of California at San Francisco published last year found that roughly one in five passengers came down with a cold within one week of a flight.
That is far higher than the rate at which colds strike the general population at any given time, according to Scott Gold, a physician and co-founder of the New York Sinus Center.
"We have a lot of patients who are frequent fliers, traveling several days a week, and we notice that a lot of them who are prone to chronic sinusitis get sick," he said.
In addition to close people-to-people contact in an airline cabin, Gold said, another issue is that "the air they're breathing is primarily recirculated ... and air quality in terms of humidity is very low and harsh," drying out the body's mucous membranes which defend against germs.
Cabin air is a combination of fresh and recirculated air, a mixture designed to conserve fuel that would otherwise be spent on air conditioning if only fresh air was used. Aircraft are also equipped with filters designed to trap infectious agents.
The earlier mentioned study found that the rate of post-flight colds was about the same whether the passengers were exposed to all fresh air or a mixture. And the airline industry has long contended that recirculated air does not pose a health hazard.
That has been contested by the Association of Flight Attendants, a union with 50,000 members, which contends recirculated air leads to a number of health problems.
Judith Murawski, an industrial hygienist for the flight attendants group, said the University of California study did not settle the colds and respiratory illness issue as it relates to cabin air because the different ventilation rates of the aircraft used were not factored in.
But she said the overall 20 percent figure for passengers who came down with colds after flights is still about four times higher than the national average.
She recommends passengers keep their hands washed and avoid touching their faces to reduce viral or germ transmission.
Similar advice comes from Dr. J. Paul Sanders of Travel Medicine Consultants in Dallas who says:
"The No. 1 most common way to get a viral infection is by touching your face -- nose, mouth or eyes. The organisms involved get on the hand from a surface. When you touch your mouth, nose or face it transmits those organisms right into the body.
"You can also inhale ... but a smaller number of organisms are going to be floating in the air than laying on surfaces. So your first step is washing your hands more often."
Sanders says the best defense from someone in-your-face and obviously with a cold is a healthy nose. The interior mucous membrane should be moist, he said.
"We tell people when traveling to drink more water than normal, or if they're taking medications that dry the nose out then it's wise to put a saline spray in," he said.
While less is known about SARS, the same guidelines apply "though it does seem to be transmitted through the air more easily than average," with reports of transmission through building air-conditioning systems, he said.
Those interviewed said antimicrobial moist towelettes or lotions are a good approach if passengers can't leave the seat to wash their hands.
Dr. Robert Pincus, who co-founded the earlier referenced sinus clinic with Gold, says they both back the use of a saline solution to rinse out the nose during and after flights, to keep the nose's air filter mechanism clean and efficient.
Bureau Report
What can a traveler do to guard against something as common as the everyday cold or as stealthy as SARS in the elbow-to-elbow confinement of an airline cabin?
There seems to be general agreement, according to a number of experts consulted, that air travelers are at higher risk for colds and other microbial or viral infections, perhaps simply because of the close quarters involved.
The suggested countermeasures are simple, ranging from washing your hands and not touching your face to bringing along your own pillow and perhaps using saline solutions to cleanse the nose.
A study from the University of California at San Francisco published last year found that roughly one in five passengers came down with a cold within one week of a flight.
That is far higher than the rate at which colds strike the general population at any given time, according to Scott Gold, a physician and co-founder of the New York Sinus Center.
"We have a lot of patients who are frequent fliers, traveling several days a week, and we notice that a lot of them who are prone to chronic sinusitis get sick," he said.
In addition to close people-to-people contact in an airline cabin, Gold said, another issue is that "the air they're breathing is primarily recirculated ... and air quality in terms of humidity is very low and harsh," drying out the body's mucous membranes which defend against germs.
Cabin air is a combination of fresh and recirculated air, a mixture designed to conserve fuel that would otherwise be spent on air conditioning if only fresh air was used. Aircraft are also equipped with filters designed to trap infectious agents.
The earlier mentioned study found that the rate of post-flight colds was about the same whether the passengers were exposed to all fresh air or a mixture. And the airline industry has long contended that recirculated air does not pose a health hazard.
That has been contested by the Association of Flight Attendants, a union with 50,000 members, which contends recirculated air leads to a number of health problems.
Judith Murawski, an industrial hygienist for the flight attendants group, said the University of California study did not settle the colds and respiratory illness issue as it relates to cabin air because the different ventilation rates of the aircraft used were not factored in.
But she said the overall 20 percent figure for passengers who came down with colds after flights is still about four times higher than the national average.
She recommends passengers keep their hands washed and avoid touching their faces to reduce viral or germ transmission.
Similar advice comes from Dr. J. Paul Sanders of Travel Medicine Consultants in Dallas who says:
"The No. 1 most common way to get a viral infection is by touching your face -- nose, mouth or eyes. The organisms involved get on the hand from a surface. When you touch your mouth, nose or face it transmits those organisms right into the body.
"You can also inhale ... but a smaller number of organisms are going to be floating in the air than laying on surfaces. So your first step is washing your hands more often."
Sanders says the best defense from someone in-your-face and obviously with a cold is a healthy nose. The interior mucous membrane should be moist, he said.
"We tell people when traveling to drink more water than normal, or if they're taking medications that dry the nose out then it's wise to put a saline spray in," he said.
While less is known about SARS, the same guidelines apply "though it does seem to be transmitted through the air more easily than average," with reports of transmission through building air-conditioning systems, he said.
Those interviewed said antimicrobial moist towelettes or lotions are a good approach if passengers can't leave the seat to wash their hands.
Dr. Robert Pincus, who co-founded the earlier referenced sinus clinic with Gold, says they both back the use of a saline solution to rinse out the nose during and after flights, to keep the nose's air filter mechanism clean and efficient.
Bureau Report