Germophobes can breathe a little easier when visiting a hospital or taking an airplane trip, a new study says.
The ambient air on planes and in hospitals mostly contains harmless microbes typically associated with human skin, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Microbiome.
The cutting-edge study analyzed germ samples captured on the outer surface of face masks worn by air travelers and health care workers, researchers said.
"We realized that we could use face masks as a cheap, easy air-sampling device for personal exposures and general exposures," senior researcher Erica Hartmann, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said in a news release.
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