Nose goop?

[Mark in CA]

Recently got pointed to this video, the first in a series of flying tips from author Dan Pink, and was left wondering what is really going on here, if anything.

Pink’s Travel Tip #1: Never get sick again | Daniel Pink (http://www.danpink.com/archives/2008/10/pinks-travel-tip-1-never-get-sick-again)

In the video, you're told the best way to avoid getting a cold from flying is to smear antiseptic goop in both your nostrils before you board. But is it really the antiseptic that is preventing you from getting sick, or just the moisturizing effect of the goop that allows your nose to work the way it is supposed to in the extremely dry cabin air? Would plain old Vaseline work just as well?

Anyone try this?

[TightSlot]

As an FA I'm constantly sick- colds and everything else - all the time. It's a miracle that I make it in to work at all.

Actually, that's the opposite of the truth, but I could probably use it to fill out a magazine column if I had to. If Mr. Pink's theory is correct, you might reasonably expect that those who spend their working lives in aircraft cabins might be the worst affected? - They're not.

The Air Filters in aircraft cabins are HEPA (http://www.pall.com/main/Aerospace-Defense-Marine/Aircraft-Cabin-Air-Filtration.page) standard: You're not at risk as a result of recirculated bugs and germs, but you are if you are sitting next to somebody with a cold - just as on a bus, metro etc.

Antiseptic cream doesn't (and can't) cure or prevent the common cold: Moist nasal passages however, do help lots of good things to happen, which is why I ram vaseline up my schnoz when going on crew rest - stops tubes drying out while sleeping (or trying to). Oh, the glamour!

[Mark in CA]

TightSlot, thanks for the first-hand (nose?) account. I did not know about the HEPA standard.

Has it always been so, or just on newer aircraft? I seem to recall reading several articles in the past about cabin air being rather rich in recirculated bugs.

I can add that the cabin air on the A380 I flew on last year (DLH) was the most comfortable of any flight I have ever taken.

[TightSlot]

It's been HEPA for a while now, but couldn't say precisely when.
The "bugs in aircon" thing has been doing the rounds for a while (http://robert.accettura.com/blog/2010/10/04/the-recirculated-air-myth/). It is an urban myth but it makes a great story at dinner parties. Other favourites include...


Aircon packs routinely turned off to save fuel

Cabin temp turned up to force sleep

The brace position exists to enable dental identification post crash

Lifejacket whistle and light are purely for reassurance

Breast implants explode in a decompression

Pilots are grey-haired steel-eyed Sky Gods: Flight Attendants are gay if male and sluts if female and all of them are brain dead fascists: Baggage Handlers are thieves, Ground Staff clueless and Airline Managers incompetent. Rules and regulations are made up on the back of a fag packet by people with no training or experience purely to inconvenience customers who know better. (Sorry, couldn't help myself there, it just bust out like a sneeze!)


:)

[DX Wombat]

TightSlot the probable reason you do not catch many bugs is that you have encountered so many in the course of your work that you have built up an immunity to them.Lifejacket whistle and light are purely for reassuranceTut, tut, everyone knows they are for attracting sharks. :rolleyes: ;)

[TightSlot]

he probable reason you do not catch many bugs is that you have encountered so many in the course of your work that you have built up an immunity to them.

I do often wonder about that... I also wonder (seriously) whether I have in any way adapted to life at the cabin altitude. In theory I should be like those Peruvians (or whoever they are in the Andes), surviving daily hypoxia at Lake Titicaca. This should mean that when I get back on the ground I leap around like a startled ferret on amphetamines as all that Oxygen gets thumped back into my system. This doesn't seem to happen though: Maybe the Gin negates it?

[DX Wombat]

Gin can be a useful calming agent for over-enthusiastic red blood cells but overdoseage can have unwelcome side-effects. ;)
Again, being a bit more serious, you probably have adapted over the years but the effect may be less than if you actually lived permanently at 8,000' rather than simply feeling that you do. The people who live at high altitudes do not tend to spend time at sea level so it would probably be reasonable to suggest that although you may have a degree of adaptation, it will not be as great as theirs. I would not be surprised if your Hb level is at the upper end of the normal range.

[Tableview]

Given that the 'bugs in aircon' thing is an urban legend, maybe someone can explain why many people seem to have a cough or cold after a flight than at any other time.

I am quite sure that all decent airlines do their best to ensure that the air is clean and adequately filtered, in the interest of their own staff and the passengers, so I am not disputing that, but there does seem to be a factor that causes coughs and colds.

[DX Wombat]

The reasons are many and varied. The first one TightSlot has already mentioned - sitting near someone who may have a cold or who may be just starting with one and who show no outward signs but are infectious. Then we have the mucky so-and-sos who do not wash their hands properly (if at all) after using the toilet so daub their infected handprints all over the place and as germs are invisible to the naked eye nobody can see them to avoid coming into contact with them themselves.

[Mark in CA]

In one of the other "tips" in that video series, the author states that the tray tables are almost never cleaned between flights, and suggests wiping your own with a sanitizing towelette before use. Is this true? (Interestingly, this same author seems to have no problem handling the TV remote in his hotel room.)

But after fainting on two separate BA flights (747 SFO to LHR) years ago, cabin attendants on the second flight stated that higher-than-normal CO2 levels were not unusual and sometimes affected them the same way. In my case, both episodes occurred not long after completing the meal service, and involved a very modest amount of alcohol.

I would not be surprised if the dryness of the cabin air -- and what prolonged exposure to that does to nasal passages and throats -- were a contributing factor to coughs/colds. I guess one could consider using a face mask, as many people routinely do when walking around in places like Tokyo.

[TightSlot]

Tray tables are cleaned routinely as part of a normal full cabin clean, but not by FA's on a turnaround clean.

With apologies to Mr. Pink, as you've appreciated from the tv remote, there are a thousand or more surfaces that we touch every day that will be unclean or have not been sanitised. I can't help but feel that Mr. pink is carving a nice little blog niche for himself out of non-existent material?

Aircraft cabins don't have increased CO2 levels, but they do have reduced O2 levels and that is nearly always what causes a variety of problems, including fainting.

I agree about dryness being a root cause. Just one other thing - I believe that the face masks are worn to protect you from them, not as is often assumed vice versa.

:)

[ExXB]

Given that the 'bugs in aircon' thing is an urban legend, maybe someone can explain why many people seem to have a cough or cold after a flight than at any other time.

I am quite sure that all decent airlines do their best to ensure that the air is clean and adequately filtered, in the interest of their own staff and the passengers, so I am not disputing that, but there does seem to be a factor that causes coughs and colds.

I don't think we can (only) blame the aeroplane. Travel brings you into close contact with many more people most people experience in a day. You stand in a check-in queue to drop your baggage, a queue to be raped, pillaged and brutalised for safety reasons, dirty toilets, queue (scrum) to get on board, the queue at immigration, the scrum around the baggage carousels, the taxi/bus queue, the dirty tax/bus, etc. Proximity to others spreads germs.

The aeroplane is probably the 'cleanest' environment, but you have go through all the rest to get onto/off the 'plane.

Carry hand cleaner and use it, wash your hands at every opportunity and try to avoid putting your hands to your face. (Impossible, but try)

[sevenstrokeroll]

it is this simple , in a book I read called: SINUS SURVIVAL, the author wrote:

the worst thing to do if you have sinus problems is to work in a coal mine.


the second worst thing to do is be a pilot or flight attendant.

USE a commercially available saline spray to keep your sinus passages moist and clean.

Avoid the use of decongesting sprays, unless its an emergency.

the plane is DRY, your nasal passages CRACK, germs have an easier time to get in your blood through cracked membranes.

You can get a sinus infection (bacterial) and think it is a viral cold, you can get a viral cold and think it is a bacterial sinus infection...either way, if you are sick, you will get SICKER by flying.

Hepa filters...well maybe, but don't count on it, especially domestic.

ALSO, consider if you fly from san francisco to washington dc...some of you ''sickness'' may be allergy related! when I was based in SAN FRAN...less illness...based in DC...more illness...checked with allergist...allergic to everything east of the mississippi. But I would rather live in virginia/DC than san fran.

[Mark in CA]

I was agreeing with everything said until I got to the part about preferring DC to San Francisco. No way! :)

[sevenstrokeroll]

lived in both san fran and the suburbs of dc...can't stand sf anymore

[Evening Star]

... Rules and regulations are made up on the back of a fag packet by people with no training or experience ...

Actually, I am not hard pushed to thing of probable examples in all walks of life ... :ooh:

[Bushfiva]

I believe that the face masks are worn to protect you from them, not as is often assumed vice versa

There are at least 3 reasons to wear masks in Japan:

When the wearer has a cold, to protect others.

At this time of year, to protect hay fever sufferers from from pollen: the masks are N95 filters. Hay fever is endemic, thanks to planting exactly the wrong kind of cedar all over Japan after WW2.

Among some younger people, a strange fashion trend to further isolate them from society. Although there's also the current huge-spectacle-frame-without-lenses fashion, which somewhat negates the isolationist aspects.