How are the trays at the airport security lines antimicrobial? How do you make a tray microbial without cleaning it?
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What about viruses, not bacteria?
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Antimicrobial products have been in use for 20+ years. The first I can remember were those hand-carry shopping baskets.
I worked for an airline and whenever a plane stayed over night or had gate time we would deep clean or quick wipe the trays off with kill all cleaner
I seriously doubt that they are. I wonder where you even got that idea? Here’s something to consider: Even if the trays are completely sterile at the start of the day, even if they are soaked in Lysol and bathed in UV light, the first person in line may have walked through dog-shit, chewing-tobacco, and piss on his way from his car to the terminal. Then he puts his shoes in that tray. Then the tray goes round-and-round throughout the day to haul shoe after shoe after shoe. I don’t care what it’s made of, unless you clean it yourself or see it being cleaned, it isn’t clean or sterile in any way.
The trays are antimicrobial in the same sense that enhanced airport security makes planes safe, weapons free zones.
TSA has a 5% tested detection rate for weapons. The trays have stuff in them that prevent (some) microbial growth.
But both are heavily marketed as necessary and effective.
There is a material I remember reading about in a science journal many years ago. Essentially it was a coating that could be applied to just about any material that created tiny microscopic spikes.
In theory it was supposed to not allow microbes to survive on the surface. The spikes were a specific size which would kill anything on the surface. While also being small enough to be be able to pierce through the skin.
As someone from China mainland, I am tired of listening to the propaganda like the COVID-19 is adhesive to the surfaces from imported goods so that people would be infected because of the residuals. This question is quite reasonable to ascertain that this type of propaganda is far from the truth.
A lot of antimicrobial surfaces are just a texture that makes it hard for things to live on. Think of it like those public benches that are designed to be uncomfortable so people wont sleep on em.
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