Thanksgiving Brings Travel and Health Hazards

In a week many Americans will be joining their families at the over-stuffed and over-sized dinner table celebrating Thanksgiving with a feast of food and sharing many memories of years past and what's happened to them over the last year and then either watching football or playing board games after their mid-afternoon nap! But how are all of these families getting together?

According to AAA, they predict that 43.6 million Americans will be traveling at least 50 miles from home to hang with the family. Most of them will be traveling by car thanks to lower gas prices while others will be traveling by air. It's expected the friendly skies will be filled with 24 million passengers and with those passengers come the threat of health hazards.

Let's face it, when you're on a crowded flight (especially this time of the year) there is someone on the plane with a cold and you run the risk of catching it! According to a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, he's released a report of some of the other hazards you should be aware of while flying. Some of the germiest places in an airplane cabin are the toilets, tray tables and the latches on the overhead bins.

If you've flown, you know how small the lavatory is and there's really not enough room to wash your hands properly in that small sink so the toilet and door knobs are target area number one. Then the tray tables, how often do you think these things get pulled down and wiped down by the crew that "cleans" the planes between the flights, very few times I bet. So be careful there and then the overhead bins are full of germs too. Just about everyone that gets on the plane is touching them as they walk down the aisles.

To protect yourself from these hazards while flying, use plenty of hand sanitizer while traveling and better yet, hold your urges until you hit the ground and get in the terminal, but there again, use the hand sanitizer!