Travel tips: the worst places for picking up germs, and why your suitcase isn’t as dirty as you might think
- Some people think that putting a suitcase, which has been dragged about outside, on the bed is disgusting. But is it actually dangerous?
- A health expert weighs in on how harmful your luggage is to your immune system, and how best to keep your holidays germ-free
It is unlikely that you come home from a trip and stand on top of your bed still wearing your street shoes. Why would you? Your shoes are covered in God-knows-what, and your bed is a sacred space.
For some travellers, putting their suitcase on their bed is just as offensive. The wheels of our luggage tread the same soiled path as our shoes, rolling through airport bathrooms, over pavements and in public transport. To these travellers, the thought of plopping that suitcase atop the same place for sleeping is an affront to humanity.
While it might sound gross, is it actually harmful to your health?
According to Phyllis Kozarsky, a travel health consultant for the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s travellers’ health branch and the chief medical editor of the CDC reference guide Health Information for the International Travel, most public health professionals don’t consider luggage a major transmitter of disease.
“We have not identified outbreaks related to dirty luggage,” Kozarsky says.