Departing Seattle airport last night, our plane, among many others, sat idle on the tarmac while waiting for Air Force One to depart. Apparently under national security law, no planes or autos may move around the airport, or in surrounding airspace until the President has boarded the plane, taxi'd down the runway, and taken off and flown a safe distance away. This also means that if Shrub has a hankering for a Cinnabun at the airport, y'all are waiting on the tarmac until every last sugary bite has been consumed, and the secret service have finished wiping Prez's fingers with a wet wipe. I digress. Hours later, our plane leaves. It was the typical waiting on the tarmac conditions...hot, crying babies, completely full plane, and two dinky toilets working overtime in the back. Did I mention we sat in the very back?
After our plane had taken off and reached cruising altitude, the drink cart barreled down the aisle to the front of the plane. I watched two staff members, a male and female, serve drinks to all the passengers. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they washed their hands thoroughly before serving drinks, even though I saw one open the bathroom door to grab a towel before leaving with the drink cart. For the most part, the staff members would grab the cups by the bottoms, pour drinks in, but then hand the drink to patrons from the top rim area. I also observed these same staff members picking up left over trash from patrons a long the way. The female stewardess grabbed a baby bottle from the top, held it, poured milk in it, and pretty much put every part of her hands on that baby bottle. Whew! Better hope Mom didn't change a diaper without washing hands before grabbing that bottle.
After drink round one is served, the staff pick up empty cups by the rims, and throw them away. They then wheel the cart down the aisle again for new drinks and or refills. Contaminated hands continue to grab the rims and the passengers of flight Petri Dish now all share a cornacoppia of bacteria and viruses. Let's see E. Coli from the baby diaper or bathroom door. Strep, Hepatitis ..but hey, what's a little benign Rhinovirus shared among us?
This scenario plays out over and over, every day, on thousands of flights a day. Here's what you can do to protect yourself.
Bring your own handiwipes. Office stores often sell the prepackaged moistened towelettes with antibacterial on them. This won't kill everything, but it's a great thing to use if you simply must use the airline toilet.
Bring your own straws. Let's say your cup is contaminated from the outside rim area and down. A clean straw that goes directly into the clean cup with minimize your exposure to the potential germ stew that may be brewing on your cup.
Ask your steward to pull and serve the cup from the bottom. Yes, they will glare at you, and maybe even say something snide, but this is YOUR health. Don't get a cold, or something worse, because you feel like you may offend. If anything, staff get busy and harried and often don't realize they are doing this. It's not intentional on their part, it's just part of the job. By saying something, quietly, you are actually doing them a favor by reminding them of their duty to protect us when on a plane. Whether it's showing us how to use the life jackets, or where the emergency exits are located, or protecting us from the latest strain of flu, they will be better at their job by being true stewards of the air and really making a difference in air safety.
