Quote:
Originally Posted by dave8721
I dont know how true it is but I have heard that planes are "relatively" safe, or at least safer than you would expect an air tight box that you are trapped in close quarters in for hours at a time. They generally have air filtration systems that are constantly sterilizing the air before cycling it back into the cabin or else they would be germ factories in normal times as well. Of course plane travel also involves close quarters indoor security lines and such which are not well ventilated. The actual flight part is probably safer than a bus or train ride.
|
I believe that's true but it's like saying you're safer in a tornado than in a hurricane because the hurricane lasts longer.
Being in a closed box for hours, even with regularly changed air, is not terribly safe and it depends somewhat on where you are sitting. I don't believe the air in planes is "sterilized" (although I've read talk of trying to do that with UV light). It's just changed constantly with the cabin air replaced by outside air.
The problem is that there are two kinds of emissions from your fellow humans that are problematic: Droplets and aerosols.
Droplets are larger bits of spittle we spray when we talk, yell, sneeze or cough. They don't travel terribly far though perhaps as far as 12 ft in some cases, then generally fall on surfaces. If they contain virus, it may live on those surfaces for days. Changing the air in the plane probably doesn't effect this much because the droplets fall out of the air so quickly but they can infact you if they hit you (hence why mask wearing is good) or if you touch where they've fallen and then touch your nose, mouth, eyes etc.
Aerosols are smaller particles--think something like the cloud of vapor expelled by someone "vaping" nicotine. These stay in the air for a long time and will be sucked out of the plane cabin by the ventillation system after a few minutes although there may be stagnant pockets of air where they remain, like eddies in a stream. That's why they say you are better off in a window seat with the air vent on full blowing at you. Masks, incidentally, are less helpful against aerosols.
Actually, take a good look at where the vapor cloud goes when this guy vapes in his video and imagine you were standing 6 or 8 ft away. Coronavirus goes about the same distance.
• Video Link