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Airport Security Trays Carry More Cold Germs Than Toilets, Study Finds

Scientists working to prevent the spread of diseases through public transportation tested surfaces at Helsinki Airport, and found viral traces on half the security trays they looked at.Credit...Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press

LONDON — Airport security is there to protect you, but it may also give you the sniffles — or worse.

To all the places and surfaces we’ve been warned are teeming with germs or bacteria — your pets, the subway seat, airplane cabins, the A.T.M. — add the airport security tray.

The plastic trays — used at airport checkpoints around the globe and touched by millions of passengers as they drop shoes, laptops, luggage and other items into them to clear X-ray scanners — have been found to harbor a variety of germs, including the ones responsible for the common cold, according to researchers in Europe.

Scientists from the University of Nottingham in England and the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare swabbed frequently touched surfaces at Helsinki Airport in Finland during and after peak hours in the winter of 2016 and picked up traces of rhinovirus, the source of the common cold, and of the influenza A virus.

They found traces on half the luggage trays, more than on any of the other surfaces they tested. None of these viruses were found on toilet surfaces at the airport, they said.

The findings, published in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases, could help improve public health strategies in the fight against the spread of infectious diseases worldwide.

The study could also help educate people on how the infections we try to avoid each winter spread, Jonathan Van-Tam, a professor of health protection at the University of Nottingham, said in an emailed statement on Wednesday.

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Wash Your Hands. No, Like This.

Scientists say that a common technique for applying hand sanitizer, one recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is inferior to an alternative method with twice as many steps.

<i>The best way to clean your skin</i> <i>is still the old-fashioned use</i> <i>of soap, hot water and plenty of elbow grease.</i> What if we told you that you’ve probably been cleaning your hands wrong and that science tells you so? It turns out there’s not one but two common internationally accepted ways to clean your hands: One from our very own C.D.C., and another by the World Health Organization. So which of these two methods is better? Researchers now know. They enlisted doctors and nurses in a Glasgow hospital in an experiment. And what they found in a study published this month was that the W.H.O.’s method was microbiologically more effective than the C.D.C.’s. So the W.H.O. won. But here’s the rub. The C.D.C.’s method for cleaning hands goes something like this: The W.H.O.’s method is like so: Rub palms together. Rub each palm front to back over the back of the other hand, interlacing fingers. Twist palms with fingers interlaced. Interlock your fingers and twist again, this time backs of fingers against palms. Clasp your left thumb in your right hand and move thumb in circular motion. Still with us? Press your right fingers together and rub them in a circular motion on your left palm. Then switch. All right — you’re done! Don’t take it hard if it doesn’t seem worth it. Although the W.H.O. method got cleaner hands, only about two-thirds of the study’s doctors and nurses completed the whole thing, which took about 42 seconds to do. The simpler C.D.C. method? Only 35. And this is important. Because, you see, in hospitals ... <i>(Training video)</i> <i>♪ Hand hygiene is dope. ♪</i> <i>♪ Now sing the alphabet</i> <i>from A to Z, ♪</i> <i>♪ get between all the nooks and tiny crannies ♪ </i> <i>♪ </i> According to the C.D.C., some two million patients get hospital-related infections a year. And the C.D.C. estimates that doctors and nurses clean their hands correctly only half the time they should. So follow-through might be just as important as “microbiological effectiveness.” While this study focused only on alcohol-based hand sanitizers, its author says that the W.H.O. way applies equally well to washing your hands with plain old soap and water — something you can practice at home. <i>♪ Wait! Don’t go near that patient ♪</i> <i>♪ What’s the matter with you? You didn’t clean your hands, ♪</i> <i>♪ and they’re covered with goo ♪</i> <i>Wash your hands all the time, in front of everyone ♪</i> <i>♪ That goes for everybody, yo, get it done ♪</i> <i>♪ Clean your hands. If you just wiped a rear or did enemas ♪</i> <i>♪ ’til clear, clean your hands, Clean your hands ♪</i>

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Scientists say that a common technique for applying hand sanitizer, one recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is inferior to an alternative method with twice as many steps.CreditCredit...Yousur Al-Hlou/The New York Times

Many of the surfaces we touch on a daily basis harbor and can spread germs. These include mobile phones, kitchen sponges and even cute bathtub rubber ducks. But air travel is known to accelerate the worldwide spread of diseases such as the flu, released naturally, and potentially of others released intentionally.

The European Union has funded a research project, called Pandhub, on preventing the spread of “high-threat” pathogens through public transportation, and the study by the University of Nottingham and Finnish institute is part of that project.

“The presence of microbes in the environment of an airport has not been investigated previously,” said Niina Ikonen, a virology expert at the Finnish institute, who was involved in the study.

She added that the results provided new ideas for technical improvements in airport design and refurbishment.

Finavia, the company that operates Helsinki Airport, said in an email: “At Finavia airports, the hygiene protocols are carried in accordance to health officials’ requirements — all surfaces are cleaned daily and all security check point trays, etc., are washed regularly.”

The results of the study did not prove that the viruses found can cause disease, the researchers’ statement said. But previous research had proved that microbes can survive on various surfaces for several days.

Washing your hands properly and coughing into a handkerchief, tissue or sleeve, especially in public places, can help minimize the risk of contagion, Professor Van-Tam said.

“These simple precautions can help prevent pandemics and are most important in crowded areas like airports that have a high volume of people traveling to and from many different parts of the world,” he added.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: Go Through Security, Pick Up Germs. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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