You might be careful while packing your clothes, shoes, and gadgets, often sanitising them before putting them in your bag, but there’s one essential item that gets overlooked: your passport. Despite being one of the most frequently handled items during a trip, it’s rarely cleaned, making it a hotspot for germs, a recent study has revealed. Here’s all you need to know.
Are Your Passports Clean?
Recently, JRPass.com conducted a study to identify the dirtiest travel items people pack on every trip. According to Travel + Leisure, the researchers carried out a petri dish microbial culture experiment, using “nutrient agar (a food gel for growing bacteria and fungi) to identify which travel items carry the highest levels of bacteria when brought back into the home.”
For the study, the Japan Rail Pass provider collected samples from six commonly used travel items–airport clothing, mobile phones, hand luggage, shoes, hold luggage, and passports. To ensure consistency, they tested three items from each category.
After testing, they found the most shocking result! Turns out, your passport is the filthiest thing you pack while travelling. The experiment measured colony-forming units (CFUs), which indicate how much bacteria are present on a surface. Simply put, the higher the CFU count, the greater the level of microbial activity.
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Here’s All You Need To Know About This
Passports recorded the highest bacterial levels at 436 CFUs, far exceeding all other items. In comparison, checked luggage had just 97 CFUs, followed by shoes at 65, hand luggage at 56, phones at 45, and coats at 15. In short, passports emerged as the dirtiest travel essential by a wide margin.
Now, there is no need to be alarmed! A simple step like wiping your passport clean more often than you do can help reduce exposure. Dr Primrose Freestone, an associate professor at the University of Leicester, told Travel + Leisure that hands are naturally covered with bacteria and fungi.
Since passports are handled by multiple people at airports, they are more likely to accumulate a wide variety of microbes, including bacteria, fungi, and even viruses. So, make sure you wipe your passports with antibacterial or alcohol wipes to keep them clean.
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We hope this information was useful to you all!
Cover Image Courtesy: Canva Pro/Chirila Sofia’s Images (representative image)
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FAQs
How does a passport become dirty while travelling?
A passport gets dirty during travel mainly because it’s handled constantly and rarely cleaned.