A friend recently told me that she never travels without a can of Lysol because she does not think that hotels do a thorough job of disinfecting after each guest. Then I began to wonder: Can you take a can of Lysol in your suitcase? If not, what can she do?
Alas, your friend's Lysol won't be leaving on a jet plane. You can travel with it, just not on an airplane.
"Lysol is a flammable aerosol and therefore cannot be brought onto a commercial aircraft by passengers or crew," Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, wrote in an e-mail.
So the options are these: Buy a can when you get to your hotel (and leave it behind if you're flying home) or take the disinfecting wipes instead of the aerosol.
But is it really necessary? A 2007 University of Virginia report says some cold germs live on hotel-room surfaces for as long as a day. There also was a recent TV report about drinking glasses that hotel housekeepers wiped down using less than hygienic methods.
"I can't deny the 'ick' factor," says Dr. Charles Ericsson, director of the travel medicine clinic at the University of Texas medical school at Houston, who adds he'll be using only the individually packaged plastic drinking cups in hotels.
Dr. Michael Zimring, author of Healthy Travel and director of the Center for Wilderness and Travel Medicine at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, thinks the keys to staying healthy on the road are simple. "Keep hydrated, get plenty of sleep and wash your hands," he says.
So spray before you stay -- yea or nay?
Both doctors concur it probably can't hurt and might give you peace of mind. And what traveler couldn't use a little more of that?