Wednesday, 2 September 2020

Flights Tonight


The National Geographic have provided a useful account of the safety of US air travel (perhaps with wider relevance to this form of transport) in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic (https://email.nationalgeographic.com/H/2/v4000001744ad717b89cf0976e966f4578/6cd7578c-05be-4622-ba14-62c107b1793b/HTML). It seems that, although the air you breathe on a flight is not virus-free, it is much cleaner than that in restaurants, bars and stores (in the US?). On most passenger planes, 40% of a cabin's air passes through a High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter, with the other 60% being fresh air from outside. Whilst the plane is cruising, the cabin air is changed, on average, every 3 minutes. It has been calculated that the air is 99.97% purified but , of course, 'bad behaviour' can undo the good work. I would just note that, especially on long-haul flights, you spend much longer in the cabin than you would in a store. Their account notes that US airlines are very variable about whether they require passengers to wear face-masks or leave the middle seats in rows empty. I am unsurprised at the article's conclusion that the biggest risk an air passenger has of contracting an infection with Covid-19, is at the airport when boarding or at take-off and landing. Pretty obviously, this risk is compounded if you have to change flights.

 

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Seeing the Changes 2104

Funnel fungi ( Clitocybe spp) at Bynea.