I read the Time Magazine article Does Air Travel Increase Your Risk for Getting Sick? I was very interested the read this article because with the reintroduction of the Swine Flu, many people were fearful of flying. According to this article, air travel is nothing to be feared.
According to Sr. Russell B. Rayman, executive director of the Aerospace Medical Association, peoples fears are "overblown." Even though airplanes are not clinically sterile, they have rigid air quality requirements. Many people believe that everyone on a plane is breathing in the same air, this is untrue. Instead of breathing the same air with 400 passengers, you are only sharing air with the people in your row. This is because of "side to side air circulation systems" in planes and the fact that fresh air comes out by your feet as well as by your head. Dr. Rayman says "If anything pathological were in the air, it would be confined to that row, or at most, it could possibly spread one or two rows in either direction,"
Rayman says that it is unlikely for microbes to make their way along seven or eight seats and the high efficiency air filters also provide protection for travelers. Like any public place, there is a risk for disease exposure on planes when other passengers are ill. Rayman also says that because you are on the plane for a long period of time the chances of catching a disease are greater than getting on and off a bus or waiting in line at the store. If you're in an airplane flying across the Atlantic, you may be sitting next to somebody for a long period of time which is not generally true in a grocery store." Regardless of where you are getting sick, particularly with Swine Flu, it comes down to the proximity of people.
I addition to the airflow, planes have requirements for the introduction of fresh air into the cabin. 55 lbs. of fresh air per occupant per minutes according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Rayman says that there has been too much misinformation about travel safety being linked with Swine Flu, but emphasizes that people who are already sick should avoid traveling to help protect themselves as well as the people around them. "If you're considerate of other people and you have a fever or you have the flu, you shouldn't be flying," he says. "It's just common sense."
I find this article very interesting because I travel alot, and have always been nervous that I would catch a cold or even the swine flu from an infected person on the same plane. With this new information I now know that there is nothing for me to worry about because of the way air planes are designed to introduce fresh air into the cabin at certain times to avoid people from inhaling the same air throughout the course of the trip.
ReplyDeleteI never would have guessed how clean the air on a plane actually is. I too believed that if one person on a plane were sick everyone else could easily becomce sick to. It is refreshing to know that they are going to such lenghts to make sure the air is clean and passengers are safe, by constantly changing and refreshing the air.
ReplyDeleteI found this article very interesting, especially in light of what Vice President Biden said several months ago, that he personally would avoid travel. His comments created an unnecessary panic, as shown by the evidence given in this article. I'm not surprised that it is so safe to travel in planes, given the huge reaction experts had against Biden's comment. It was reassuring to read this article, and to know that air travel is not considerably less safe than any other kind of public interaction.
ReplyDeleteI found this article to be very intersting. When there was first talk about Swine Flu being a huge epidemic, many people became scared to fly, or even go out in public, or anywhere where they would be near a lot of people. This article provided me with information that I did not know. I think this would be a good article for everyone to read because a lot of people are scared to fly in fear of getting Swine Flu. It is good to know about the air on the plane and how everyone isn't breathing in the same air. Obviously if someone is sick, like the article mentioned, the bacteria can be easily passed on to other people in the plane, but it is still interesting to see how germs usually don't travel far due to the way the air is on the plane.
ReplyDeleteWow I thought if one person on a plane was sick, then everyone could easily get sick. I reminds me of the video on Joe Biden said early with not allowing his family to travel by plane or something like that in order not to get swine flu. I am glad to hear that the air is so clean in the cabin, and not everyone on the plane can get it.
ReplyDeleteI also found this article really interesting and informative. My family and I are going away soon and we have talked about how we don't want to get sick because we thought that if someone on a plane that we were on are sick then we too would get sick. I always thought that planes were places where a lot of germs could be transferred from person to person because there is no fresh air and there are a lot of people in a small amount of space. This is the first time I have heard about planes being really clean, which is the main reason why I find this article interesting.
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