Flying dirty

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Flying dirty The Philippine Star) Updated July 09, 2011

The flight stewardess showed me to my aisle seat and I smiled to see the middle

seat was kept vacant. I was about to strap my belt when a strong, pungent odor

knocked out my cheery grin. The smell was coming from a passenger who sat on

the opposite side of my seat. Quickly, I nudged the stewardess and whispered,

" I've got a problem; the man in the same row smells awfully bad and I won't be

able to survive this 18-hour flight. " She cupped her mouth and said, " Oh dear,

wait until all the passengers are seated and I will move you. " My friend who was

traveling with me was surprised to see me several rows behind our assigned

seats. I also wore a sachet of Vaporine or a mentholated air purifier around my

neck. " Where's the smell? " she laughed.

This was one of the downsides to flying, a dirty one, if you consider the odious

bacteria that hop around in the aircraft. My friend, Juris Telmo, sent me a list

of the " germiest " parts of traveling and when I thought about it, she hit the

nail on the head with the following:

Germ no. 1: The trolley at the airport where you load your luggage. This has

been pushed and used by millions of passengers and you only need one person with

a running nose to transfer the bacteria from his nose to the handle of the

pushcart and to your hands.

Rx: Wipe the trolley with wet wipes before using it.

Germ no. 2: The floor or the rug that you step on when you remove your shoes to

pass through Security. The rug would have been stepped upon by passengers with

sweaty soles with all kinds of fungus and foot rash. Oh all right, you only

spent a few minutes without shoes so maybe, you won't catch any foot infection

yet.

Rx: Wear socks when you remove your shoes or carry a pair of socks in your

hand-carry to use where needed.

Germ no. 3:...

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