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Recent Study Reveals The Dirtiest Places On A Plane, And It’s Not The Toilet

Recent Study Reveals The Dirtiest Places On A Plane, And It’s Not The Toilet


A recent study was undertaken to see which surfaces on airplanes were the most (or least) sanitary. The study, done for Travelmath, had a microbiologist taking samples from the various surfaces on a plane which were frequently touched, including the tray tables, the toilet, seatbelt buckles, lavatory locks, and the overhead air vents.

Surprisingly enough, the locks on the lavatory doors had the least colony-forming units (CFU) per square inch, coming in at only 70 CFU/sq. in. However the dirtiest place on board a plane was the tray tables. These tray tables had over 30 times the CFU concentration than the lavatory locks; coming in at 2,155 CFU/sq. in.

Travelmath stated “this might have something [to] do with airline staff having little turnaround time between flights.” While this may be true, tray tables aren’t the hardest things to clean, even if they get a quick scrub. Nevertheless, it’s always a good idea to not let food or other items rest on the tray tables.