Why can airplane travel expose you to a high concentration of germs if airlines say the area is cleansed with filters and the plane is cleaned regularly ?

Question

Why can airplane travel expose you to a high concentration of germs if airlines say the area is cleansed with filters and the plane is cleaned regularly ?

In: Biology

Answer 1

One detail I don’t see mentioned so far is that, at altitude, the atmosphere inside the aircraft is different to our normal outside air. Pressure is much lower (~ equivalent to 10.000 feet or 3000 meters) and humidity is very low (10 to 20%), both irritate our mucous membranes and make them more prone to infection.

The humidity is due to the outside temperature at 30.000+ feet being around -50°C, it just doesn’t hold any water.