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Germs / Travel Gear / Travel Gadgets / Stupid Ideas / Travel Health / → All Tags

What Type Of Traveler Packs A Hand-Held UV Germ Scanner?

If you love getting out of the house but hate the "other people exist" part of traveling, there are a number of things you can do. Our recommendation is an mp3 player and a really good set of noise-canceling headphones. Failing that, books and earplugs work pretty well on airplanes. But there are certain parts of the world where interacting with other people's germs is unavoidable. Getting rid of all of them is impossible, you know.

But that isn't stopping travel companies from marketing hand-held UV lights, like the $79 Nano-UV Scanner, to germphobic travelers. There's a well-defined and well-justified use for UV bulbs in disinfecting water when you're camping—though there are easier ways and you better know what you're doing—but campers aren't the ones being targeted here:

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Germs / TripAdvisor / Ireland / Venice Travel / → All Tags

Ireland Wins A Kiss For Germiest Attraction

Among the tourist attractions that make us go "ew", Ireland's Blarney Stone has always been high on the list—the thought of kissing the same piece of rock that all those strangers have kissed is kind of gross.The great news today is we're not the only OCD travelers around thinking this.

A new TripAdvisor list says that the Blarney Stone is #1 on the "Top 5 Germiest World Attractions" list. Not the kind of list you want to be at the top of, right?

After polling some 4,600 travelers, TripAdvisor also discovered that Seattle's Wall of Gum and Oscar Wilde's tomb in Paris are considered very germy too. At number four, St Mark's Square in Venice is a clear germ choice thanks to the pigeons. Rounding out the top five are the famous hand and footprints in Hollywood. Looks like wherever we travel we totally need our germ-busting nano scanner wand.

Related Stories:
· Germiest Vacation Spots [Boston Globe]
· Ireland's Blarney Stone Stuff-Up [Jaunted]
· Nano Scanner Wand Makes The World A Cleaner Place [Jaunted]

[Photo: bowbrick]

Open Thread / Travel Health / Zachary Quinto / Germs / → All Tags

How 'Spock' Avoids the Swine Flu and Other Viruses When Flying

New York magazine recently asked celebrities how they could possibly be carrying on with their daily duties in the midst of the (now, so last week) swine flu hysteria. The answers were as eclectic as the interviewees but we found a nice little travel health nugget from Zachary Quinto aka Spock in the new Star Trek. He says:

"Every time I get on an airplane I have a routine. I cover the inside of my nostrils with an antibacterial ointment. I'm popping Zicam like it's candy. And I drink, literally, from L.A. to New York, six bottles of water."

If the magazine had only asked what he packs in his carry-ons, we wouldn't be surprised to find a stash of surgical masks as well.

So tell us, are you as extreme at Zachary Quinto swiping your nostrils with Neosporin or are you touching everyone and everything on the plane without worry? Or as Brian Dennehy says, "What's the point? It's like worrying about getting hit when you cross the street." Let us know your bacterial killing/loving tips in comments below.

Related Stories:
· Nothing to Sneeze At [New York Magazine]
· The Swine Flu Hysteria [Jaunted]

[Photo: Ewen and Donabel]

Travel Gadgets / Travel Health / Germs / → All Tags

Nano Scanner Wand Makes The World A Cleaner Place

Germs -- they're everywhere! Having just recovered from a massive multi-stage cold which caused even hardened New York subway riders to shrink away from us in horror, we have a new appreciation for Purel and hand-washing. Maybe we should evangelize -- how about trying to disinfect the world? With the SkyMall Nano Wand Scanner, we could try, even though it modestly claims to only rid the world of 99.9 percent of germs.

In just 10 seconds, the Nano Wand Scanner will kill microorganisms and seriously discourage dust mites in the area you've run it over. Customer reviews rave that it's very light and easy to pack, but it can burn through things if you aren't careful -- just the kind of thing we want panicked travelers to be wielding wildly in under-janitored airports.

Prior to this past bout of death cold, our preferred method of avoiding germs was just to not think about them. But is zapping everything in sight going to make us feel better, really? Or would running this puppy over every single surface make you feel like you're in an episode of "Room Raiders"?

Related Stories:
· Attack of the Travel Germs [Jaunted]
· Hotel Germs Crisis: It's Not Just The Bedspreads Anymore [HC]
· Travel Gadgets coverage [Jaunted]