When people go through airport security, they might wish if they had a pair of gloves on, just like the TSA agents carry along with them.
Researchers have provided evidence regarding the fact that the plastic trays, which are present in security lines, are nothing but a haven for respiratory viruses to breed upon. According to the report from the researchers last week published in BMC Infectious Diseases, there is every possibility that the trays can harbour more of these types of pathogens than the button that people use to flush in the toilets at the airport.
Dr. Mark Gendered, doctor who specializes in aviation medicine at Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospitals in Beverly, Mass but was not involved in the study, said that, when he walks into the security line at the airport and get to see the TSA agents wearing gloves, he tends to have the feeling that they must not get in touch with him, having those gloves in their hands. The usual protocol is that the TSA agents must make sure to use fresh gloves before they look to touch any passenger.
Virologists had looked for the presence of viruses on 90 surfaces at the airport in Helsinki. They went on to gather eight samples from the security trays, which are of plastic, over the period of three weeks. Almost half of those samples showed signs of minimum one respiratory virus like influenza A or even a coronavirus, which can lead to the cause of some really severe respiratory infections. In a contrasting manner, the 42 samples, which were collected from surfaces around the airport’s toilets, none of them had shown any semblance of these viruses.
So, the message that one can take home from the study, which got conducted, does match up with that of the studies, previously conducted. Dr. Gendreau said that the security area at the airport is indeed an area that can cause infectious diseases. People would have the highest possibility of getting diseases transmitted to one another by standing at the security line at the airport.
