Driving to School makes you ill

 

New research reveals that children are more likely to catch a cold from being driven to school than catching them in the classroom.

 

Kleenex Anti-Viral conducted research into the habits of car driving parents and their children.

 

It found more that 50 per cent of parents left used tissues in the car for more than a day, and 30 per cent for up to a month.

 

The car is a potential cold and flu trap due to the limited air circulation, passenger containment in confined space and used tissues left in the car.

 

Children were at a high exposure time to circulating germs as 94 per cent of school runs clocked up 30 minutes round trip each way for the children and an hour for the adults.

Family doctor Dr Dawn Harper said: “Parents are protective over their child’s health and try to maintain high levels of hygiene within the home. We are forgetting to take preventative measures when ferrying our kids around in the car – it takes just one sneeze in a car environment to release millions of air borne germs.”

“It is vital to contain these germs and the easiest way to do this is to instil hygienic tissue usage and disposal, especially as Kleenex’s research shows 55% of children using their sleeve or hand to wipe their nose if a tissue isn’t readily available!”

 

 “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 you kids against cold and flu germs in the car therefore is to use an anti-viral tissue that kills 99.9 percent of major cold and flu viruses in a tissue.”