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Memo to Air Travelers: That Disinfecting Wipe Won’t Save You
Why a top-to-bottom seat swab is not as effective as you might think
Naomi Campbell recently posted a video to her personal YouTube channel titled “Naomi Campbell’s Airport Routine.” In the five minute clip, the supermodel glides through an airport in flowing silk pants, a matching top, and saucer-sized sunglasses. She looks back to casually inform the camera, “we’re going to Qatar,” before ascending into the first-class section of the aircraft. That’s when things really get going: “Clean anything you could possibly touch” she instructs, disinfects everything from the screen to the back of the headrest with a Dettol wipe with a gloved hand. “This is what I do on every plane I get on,” she continues. “I do not care what people think of me, it’s my health and it makes me feel better.” Finally, she drapes the entire chair in a bright pink blanket, dons a surgical mask, and settles in for her flight. The video has almost 1.8 million views and the comments are filled with believers.
One such believer is Hillary Dixler Canavan. She hasn’t always been an airplane cleanser, but things changed in 2013 when she started traveling frequently for work. Although Dixler Canavan doesn’t take it to the latex-glove-wearing level that Campell does, she’s put a lot of thought into her routine and keeps a go bag of sanitizing wipes and hand sanitizer at all times. “If more people did routines like this […] everybody on the airplane would be healthier,” she said. “Wiping down those tray tables and the armrest, in my opinion, it’s a public service.”
Campbell and Dixler Canavan’s personal plane hygiene routines are understandable, but are they effective? What are the actual odds of catching something on an airplane, and does the risk really come from a dirty tray table?
According to Nick Rizzo, an internal medicine specialist at Premiere General Medicine in Illinois, being on an airplane doesn’t necessarily expose you to more germs than on the ground. “One of the things that is a big fallacy, especially in the U.S., is how many germs are out there, and how [they’re] going to hurt you,” he explains. Human beings are constantly exposed to pathogens in every public space, from subway cars to the counter at a coffee shop, most…
