27 million of us will be taking to the roads this Christmas but the traffic jams on the way could be the least of our concerns.
The 19th December is predicted to be the busiest day of the year on the roads with most travellers doing an average of 121 miles and several hours. But with 1 in 10 of us already suffering from a cold or flu, it might not just be the traffic that’s congested this Christmas.
New research from Kleenex Anti-Viral shows that 99% of us are unaware that the car is a cold and flu germ breeding ground, despite all the signs of a high risk environment: limited air circulation, closer confinement and questionable, flu-spreading habits.
For example, over half of us admit to leaving our used tissues in the car for longer than a day and only 30% clean them out once a month, leading to a build up of used tissues in car doors and footwells. Furthermore, with 55% of our kids using their sleeve or hand to wipe their noses, after a long car journey we could all find ourselves sneezing into our Christmas puddings.
Famous family GP and mother of three Dr. Dawn Harper, says: “When you’re heading to your relatives’ for your Christmas turkey it’s easy to forget what you might be passing on – or even catching – germs along the way. We all forget to take preventative measures when ferrying the family around in the car but it takes just one sneeze in a car environment to release millions of airborne germs”.
Dr. Harper continues: “Germs can remain virulent for up to 24 hours, even in a used tissue, but it is not always easy or practical to throw away a tissue immediately when you are driving. An easy way to protect your kids against cold and flu germs in the car is therefore to use an anti-viral tissue that kills 99.9 per cent of major cold and flu viruses in a tissue.
Here are her tips for protecting families against seasonal sniffles:
- Practice coughing etiquette – use a disposable tissue (preferably an anti-viral one) and remember to dispose of it as soon as you can.
- Open windows to increase ventilation and reduce humidity (this will reduce the risk of airborne viruses(
- If you have a virus, avoid travelling.
- Wash your hands when you get out of the car, and don’t touch your mouth before doing so.
- Get plenty of sleep and exercise, drink lots of water, and eat a nutritious diet.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=187108e7-1917-431f-9124-f530b27d7ed5)
