It's disgusting. They make us take out our laptops and into the same plastic tub that previous passengers have put their shoes in after walking on filthy sidewalks and public restroom floors. Who can say what horrible germs are now on our laptops and onto our hands when we pick our belongings back up. And is this why we get sick alot when flying in the US? The TSA should be made to put new disposable paper covers on each tub before each use, no different than a fast food restaurant is put on plastic food trays. The Tub Stacking Association should have thought of this already because stacking tubs is what they do best. Wonder how many times I have got fecal bacteria on my hands from the shoes of people who went through the TSA checkpoint first. Alot of the tubs at the airport look really dirty and probably never cleaned. Is anyone else disgusted by this?

Me, bigtime. I am always tempted to state I have a medical condition to avoid the shoe takeoff/walk in socks in pubilc (my medical condition is I can get bacteria on my socks from the gross floor and get sick) but I'm usually pulling a just in time operation at the airport so I haven't yet.

Worse than the laptop is the freedom baggie out in the bin. Gross. If I have time, I will just leave it in my bag and usually at most it results in them opening the bag, looking at it, and moving on....

I've tried that. They insist on a doctor's note.

Mike

Welcome to FlyerTalk! The TSA should be made to not play the Shoe Carnival. Better yet, the TSA should be destroyed and transformed into an unpleasant memory instead of a disgusting reality.

Many of us are disgusted by Kip Hawley the Idiot's sicko little shoe perversion.

ummm yeah TSA spreads disease through there poor sanitation and improper use of PPE (Personal Protection Equipment). I have commented on this several times and even sent emails to the blog to get a response and have gotten nothing but silence.

I have a trip in october where i will be hitting a fair number of airports and CP, so i will be doing another round of swabs to see if things have improved or gotten worse. I pretty much know the answer but want some proof to back it up that CP indeed are worse then a cheap Chinese buffet restaurant from a sanitation standpoint.

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showpost....2&postcount=20

Yeah, I am, and I work there!

But it hasn't killed me yet, and I doubt it will hurt you, either.

If the thought of germs really bothers you, I'd encourage you to wrap your stuff in plastic, wear booties and bring along a small bottle of hand sanitizer!

Have you thought of placing a newspaper in the tub first?

Sorry Spiff, but I'm a little unclear about how you feel.

In the future, please try to be more concise when stating your opinion on Der Shoemeister.

I'll do my best.

Are you willing to bet your life on that statement? I sure as heck wont and I encounter the worst superbugs known to man everyday.

The booties i had cultured last year just the first page of results were enough to make my skin crawl. As for the hand sanitizer that will kill most things but not all, you need something similar to citrace or PDI Wipes. FYI you dont want to use this on your skin unless you want to cause chromosomal damage and/or Cancer; no joke it was listed on the label in the last 4 batches we got at work.

They do not.

I kept my kicks on for over a year while recovering from an ankle fracture. Radio silence about it.

Welcome to Flyertalk, quantas4me!

Well, I guess I am -- I work there, don't I?

And the worst thing I've caught while employed by the TSA is ... a common cold. I mean, can you imagine? The horror of it. Egads!

well thats probably because you wear gloves and keep your shoes on while the rest of us are exposed to some of the nastiest bugs in the world(MRSA, VRE, MDRO, and acinetobacter) from less then sanitary conditions.


Since you have thrown your lot in. say i come to the CP with OR style shoe covers that go up to the knee, along with a HEPA duckbill mask with face shield, and chemo gauntlet gloves that go to mid forarm, along with a gown, am i gonna get a secondary or just dirty looks.

You may think its funny but thats the gear that is used in hospitals when staff goes into a patients room that have tested positive for those bugs.

Hmmm. Quite a cavalier attitude from someone who was freaking out about an extra ppb of THM in drinking water.

Are you saying that bacteria are safer than THM?

Their's an idea. Would they let me leave my laptop in a clear plastic bag in there Tub and leave the bag in there Tub after the exray? And the Tub Stackers could dispose of the bag with there little blue smurf gloves on then I wouldn't have to get the disgusting toilet floor diseases on my laptop. Would that only make the Tub Stacking Apes yell "freeze!" and give me one of there famous pelvic exams? Probably without even changing there filthy smurf gloves.
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