Only 20 Percent of People Have Clean Hands at the Airport, According to Study

The airport and, by extension, airplanes have always been a cause for concern when it comes to hygiene. We're not kidding when we say there's a coughing epidemic in both areas. A face mask can only do so much, however, as a new study says only a handful of travelers wash their hands.

The study comes from Massachusettes Institute of Technology which published the findings back in December, just before the coronavirus outbreak.

People do wash their hands as it seems, just not properly. "Seventy percent of the people who go to the toilet wash their hands afterward," says author Professor Christos Nicolaides from a previous ASM study. "The other 30 percent don't. And of those that do, only 50 percent do it right."

According to the study, at any given time, only about 20 percent of people have clean hands that have been washed with soap and water for at least 15 seconds.

"Eliciting an increase in hand-hygiene is a challenge," Nicolaides says, "but new approaches in education, awareness, and social-media nudges have proven to be effective in hand-washing engagement."

Naturally, the better people's handwashing habits are, the better we can slow the diseases around us.