travel

Think the hotel hair dryer saves you luggage space? Here's why you'll never use it again.

***IMPORTANT GERM BULLETIN***

We don’t want to alarm you but your hotel hairdryer is definitely trying to kill you.

That humble little hairdryer that saves you space in your luggage is actually packed full of germs.

In a past investigation the ABC found that hotel hairdryers are actually more germ ridden than the toilet. Yep, the thing that’s DRYING YOUR HAIR is dirtier than a toilet that’s been used by thousands of people before you.

And look – it kind of makes sense. The toilets would be thoroughly cleaned each day, but the poor old hairdryer probably hasn’t had a whiff of disinfectant in years.

PLEASE NO.

Chuck Gerba, the microbiologist who conducted the experiment, swabbed nine items from hotel rooms ranging from $98 to $500 per night - and in all of the rooms the hairdryer was, well, pretty damn filthy (and maybe just a little bit kinky?).

"There must be some things you can do with a hair dryer that I am not aware of because some of them were pretty germy," he said.

While we're talking about germs, scientists have also found that most of the germs on planes actually live on the tray tables.

You know those nifty little tables you flip down, nice and close to your lap, and eat your food off?

For an experiment for TravelMath, a scientist collected 26 samples from four flights and five airports - and tested the samples for germs.

How often do you need to wash your pillowcase? Post continues...

From the samples, the microbiologist determined the tray tables were the germiest parts of the plane - with 2,155 colony forming bacteria.

This was far more than what he found in the toilet, which kind of makes sense because - like I said before - toilets are cleaned regularly BUT WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE TRAY TABLES.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to buy an extra large bottle of hand sanitiser.

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