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Unfortunately this feels like situation where the free market will fail to incentivize the best solution. The airport itself does not feel the economic pain fro

Unfortunately this feels like situation where the free market will fail to incentivize the best solution. The airport itself does not feel the economic pain from its travelers getting sick from touching its steel surfaces. The passengers likely aren't even aware this choice might have caused their sickness. So airports will always choose steel over copper/silver/brass so long as steel is cheaper. This seems like a reasonable place for regulators to step in.

stretchwithme 8y ago
I agree. And perhaps a subsidy. The potential avoidance of misery justifies making it easy to choose.
- AmericanChopper 8y ago
  A regulation and a subsidy are called for because people don't wash their hands often enough?
  - myself248 8y ago
    Or aren't able to. Airports are a controlled environment where your free will is a lot less meaningful than usual. I'm quite fond of hand-washing, and I hate airports because they make it so difficult. You have to touch everything, and everything touches you, and sinks are few and far between, and only located in jam-packed restrooms. You also can't bring decent quantities of hand sanitizer through checkpoints. This ban on liquids and gels applies to alcohol gel, BZK foam, povidone solution, and towelettes premoistened with any of the above. I checked. Once aboard the plane, there's no effective handwashing. The bathrooms are so small you brush the walls with your shoulders while turning around, the trash-flap has to be shoved on to deposit your paper towel, and the door latch has to be touched to be operated. After you've arrived at your destination, luggage at the baggage claim has been handled by folks outside your control, who themselves probably don't wash their hands very often, and once you've grabbed it, even if you wipe it down with some towelettes you've squirreled away, there's no restroom nearby to wash the remaining mostly-dead germs off your hands. So please, tell me which airports you've been flying where handwashing is easy, and I'll try to schedule a connection through one to check it out.
    - beamatronic 8y ago
      I don’t disagree but I do regret reading this.
    - AmericanChopper 8y ago
      You can wash your hands at any airport in the world. Also, neither you nor anybody else has been on a flight that required more than 100ml of hand sanitiser to keep yourself clean. If you're using more than that, then you have a problem and it's not related to bacteria.
    - markdown 8y ago
      Do you suffer from OCD? You can do none of these things and be just fine.
      - Bjartr 8y ago
        People routinely get sick when traveling to the point it's basically a trope. Keeping your hands clean is an excellent problem way to reduce your likelihood of getting sick in general. You, personally, may not get sick traveling, but your experience is not a solution for a systemic problem, nor is your proposal of doing nothing.
        markdown 8y ago
        It's possible that people who routinely get sick when traveling are the ones that live their lives in self-made sterile cocoons... a tiny sliver of the air-travelling public. > People routinely get sick when traveling to the point it's basically a trope. The only version of the trope I've heard of before is eating in foreign 3rd world destinations (eg: Delhi belly). I live in a major tourist destination and if tourists were routinely getting sick out here I'd know about it. I mean of course one should be washing their hands after using the bathrooom, but all that other stuff you mentioned.. that's anal to the point of obsessive.
        Bjartr 8y ago
        >I mean of course one should be washing their hands after using the bathrooom Isn't a large value of washing after using the restroom that it means you'll wash your hands multiple times a day when you wouldn't otherwise? > but all that other stuff you mentioned.. that's anal to the point of obsessive. Arguments similar to this were used against washing your hands at all when we first developed a theory of germs and contamination. Really though, this discussion won't progress until one of us has supporting data.
  - stretchwithme 8y ago
    It seems easier and cheaper than forcing everybody to have good hygiene. Maybe the Nazis could make it happen, but I think we'd lose much more than we'd gain.
swebs 8y ago
There is no free market, airports are owned and operated by the government. Regulations are not necessary. If the government wants copper fittings, they simply need to order them.
- newhere420 8y ago
  Although the vast majority of major airports are state owned, some aren't. Notably, most major airports in the UK (including Heathrow and Gatwick) are privately owned and operated.

stretchwithme 8y ago

I agree. And perhaps a subsidy. The potential avoidance of misery justifies making it easy to choose.

AmericanChopper 8y ago
A regulation and a subsidy are called for because people don't wash their hands often enough?
- myself248 8y ago
  Or aren't able to. Airports are a controlled environment where your free will is a lot less meaningful than usual. I'm quite fond of hand-washing, and I hate airports because they make it so difficult. You have to touch everything, and everything touches you, and sinks are few and far between, and only located in jam-packed restrooms. You also can't bring decent quantities of hand sanitizer through checkpoints. This ban on liquids and gels applies to alcohol gel, BZK foam, povidone solution, and towelettes premoistened with any of the above. I checked. Once aboard the plane, there's no effective handwashing. The bathrooms are so small you brush the walls with your shoulders while turning around, the trash-flap has to be shoved on to deposit your paper towel, and the door latch has to be touched to be operated. After you've arrived at your destination, luggage at the baggage claim has been handled by folks outside your control, who themselves probably don't wash their hands very often, and once you've grabbed it, even if you wipe it down with some towelettes you've squirreled away, there's no restroom nearby to wash the remaining mostly-dead germs off your hands. So please, tell me which airports you've been flying where handwashing is easy, and I'll try to schedule a connection through one to check it out.
  - beamatronic 8y ago
    I don’t disagree but I do regret reading this.
  - AmericanChopper 8y ago
    You can wash your hands at any airport in the world. Also, neither you nor anybody else has been on a flight that required more than 100ml of hand sanitiser to keep yourself clean. If you're using more than that, then you have a problem and it's not related to bacteria.
  - markdown 8y ago
    Do you suffer from OCD? You can do none of these things and be just fine.
    - Bjartr 8y ago
      People routinely get sick when traveling to the point it's basically a trope. Keeping your hands clean is an excellent problem way to reduce your likelihood of getting sick in general. You, personally, may not get sick traveling, but your experience is not a solution for a systemic problem, nor is your proposal of doing nothing.
      - markdown 8y ago
        It's possible that people who routinely get sick when traveling are the ones that live their lives in self-made sterile cocoons... a tiny sliver of the air-travelling public. > People routinely get sick when traveling to the point it's basically a trope. The only version of the trope I've heard of before is eating in foreign 3rd world destinations (eg: Delhi belly). I live in a major tourist destination and if tourists were routinely getting sick out here I'd know about it. I mean of course one should be washing their hands after using the bathrooom, but all that other stuff you mentioned.. that's anal to the point of obsessive.
        Bjartr 8y ago
        >I mean of course one should be washing their hands after using the bathrooom Isn't a large value of washing after using the restroom that it means you'll wash your hands multiple times a day when you wouldn't otherwise? > but all that other stuff you mentioned.. that's anal to the point of obsessive. Arguments similar to this were used against washing your hands at all when we first developed a theory of germs and contamination. Really though, this discussion won't progress until one of us has supporting data.
- stretchwithme 8y ago
  It seems easier and cheaper than forcing everybody to have good hygiene. Maybe the Nazis could make it happen, but I think we'd lose much more than we'd gain.

swebs 8y ago

There is no free market, airports are owned and operated by the government. Regulations are not necessary. If the government wants copper fittings, they simply need to order them.

newhere420 8y ago
Although the vast majority of major airports are state owned, some aren't. Notably, most major airports in the UK (including Heathrow and Gatwick) are privately owned and operated.