"I'm a mother, too, and I would never, ever do that," said Bessiere, director of business development at an event-planning firm in San Francisco.
This sort of incident is what spurs Bessiere, who travels about two weeks a month for work, to wipe down seats with disinfectant, use hand sanitizer religiously and wash her hands regularly. Health experts say her habits aren't in vain — especially if the bacteria from a baby's diaper ended up on the glove of a Transportation Security Administration officer during a security check.
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..Airports and airplanes were never clean places to begin with – after all, they're where large crowds from across the world converge in confined spaces.
But as screening procedures get stricter and more passengers opt for pat-downs instead of graphic X-rays, the likelihood of bacteria being spread increases, said Patrick Schlievert, a microbiology and immunology professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School.
The more aggressive the searches, and the more intimate contact there is, the higher the likelihood of transmitting infection, Schlievert said.
"When you touch people, you start picking up their organisms," he told MyHealthNewsDaily. "That might be OK if you wear gloves, but what about everyone else you're touching down the road?"
And when people stand huddled in long lines at security checkpoints and gates, they increase their chance of exposure to bacteria and viruses, he said.
"The key thing you need to do when you get through security is to avoid being coughed on, which can be very hard," Schlievert said. "These organisms are being spread around, and close, crowded places are the best places for doing so."
Although Bessiere is concerned about germs, she thinks the benefits of the security measures outweigh the ick-factor.
"They're taking measures necessary to check people thoroughly," and it's better to go through an uncomfortable search than for a bad guy to get through security scot-free, she said.
Where are the germs?
In one hour, adults touch their face 15.5 times, their eyes 2.5 times, their noses five times and their lips eight times on average, said Charles Gerba, a microbiology professor at the University of Arizona.
And the easiest way to catch something is to touch a surface that's been colonized with bacteria, and then touch your face, said Gerba, who is an expert on the prevalence of bacteria on common surfaces.
He recently collected bacteria from 20 airplanes to find the most infected spots. Airplane bathrooms won by a landslide — most seeing 50 people between cleanings, and see 75.
"It's the probably the germiest toilet you'll come across," Gerba told MyHealthNewsDaily.
Most of the bathrooms he swabbed had E. coli bacteria. Thirty percent of sinks, flush handles and faucet handles had E. coli, as did 20 percent of toilet seats, according to his research.
And the closet-sized bathrooms easily allow droplets to splash out of the toilet and land all over the place, he said. Because bacteria thrive in moist environments, the surfaces are ripe for colonization.
And in turn-around flights, there's not much time to clean thoroughly before the next flight's passengers board, Gerba said. Some oft-neglected parts: seat-back trays and the luggage compartment bin handles.
Gerba found norovirus, MRSA and influenza virus on trays. However, he wasn't able to measure levels of the bacteria or viruses to see if they were high enough to make someone very sick.
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