Swab tests repeatedly show that the fold-down tray table at your airplane seat is the absolute dirtiest surface on the entire aircraft, harboring roughly eight times more bacteria than the lavatory flush button.

A closer look

Swab tests repeatedly show that the fold-down tray table at your airplane seat is the absolute dirtiest surface on the entire aircraft, harboring roughly eight times more bacteria than the lavatory flush button. Flight attendants simply do not have the turnaround time to sanitize hundreds of trays between domestic flights, meaning you are eating your overpriced pretzels off the exact same surface where the previous passenger changed a dirty diaper or rested their unwashed, barefoot toes. Airlines deep clean these cabins maybe once a month, leaving a thriving microbial metropolis right in your lap for the duration of the journey. Keep this horrifying reality in mind the next time your apple slice falls directly onto the plastic tray and you casually consider applying the five-second rule while soaring thirty thousand feet above the earth