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Airplane Poop Is Dangerous
Scientists tested airplane sewage from five different airports and discovered it contained a significantly higher abundance and diversity of antibiotic-resistant microbes, compared to sewage tested at a nearby wastewater plant and even nearby hospitals. (www.popularmechanics.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Given that a person can start their travel in the DRC (Congo) and 36 hours later be at home in Sacramento, this study should be the foundation for more thorough studies on the matter. DRC has Ebola which is not spread by feces. But typhoid, cholera, polio and hepatitis can be. Imagine some maintenance worker disconnecting the tubing pumping clean a planes lav's, and there is a spill. Onto the clothes, he carriers it into a shower, then into a washing machine, etc. Will the shower and washing machine have hot enough water to kill the bugs without killing the human? May need to consider HazMat Decontamination Showers at the airports.
Another reason to wear those shoes on the plane, especially when going to the bathroom!
I am in the medical business and I see many patients who are from Asia and Central America with antibiotic resistance where no oral medication can treat serious infection. Even IV antibiotics have limited effectiveness. You can buy antibiotics in these countries without prescription. It ain't no joke because we admit patients with severe sepsis and have no drugs to treat them and they die.
I can see how transmission can easily happen with overseas airline travel
I can see how transmission can easily happen with overseas airline travel
Second reading of the article ran across the 'control' for the comparison. It was the local German treatment plant and hospitals. It would be interesting to see how the results matched similar controls from other countries in Europe, America, Asia, Africa, Australia. Journal article itself can be found at
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b03236
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b03236
So you have a lot of travelers from all over the world, and the holding tank gets it from all of the passengers. Yes, it is one thing to drain the holding tank but then to flush the tank. Is it done? This would, in theory, reduce the contamination from previous tanks. As for the person on the ground that does the draining, they need to be properly geared up and trained in just what they are dealing with. All of this takes time and money the question is are the airlines willing and able to make that happen.
A lot of jokes can and are made on this subject, but its no laughing matter. just as various diseases were spread around the world by explorers hundreds of years ago, now it happens in just hours and we are starting to see the evidence in the spread of measles that we thought were once eradicated