I'm not really a germophobe. I mean I carry hand sanitizer and I make sure to scrub my bathroom and kitchen once a week, but I also bite my fingernails at a near constant rate, often after I've touched a communal keyboard or handrail. Gross, I know, but it's a nervous habit and I don't see it going away anytime soon. Still, with all the swine flu buzz lately I can't say I haven't been more careful.

Then yesterday, Slate once again caught my attention with a tweet that simply read, "Death by airplane bathroom," followed by a link. As I'm scheduled to board a plane to Texas in less than 48 hours, I naturally clicked. And for once Slate wasn't jumping to the worst conclusion:

"'We take in humongous amounts of live organisms every day, and we are all routinely covered in fecal organisms," says Michael Bell, associate director for infection control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion. 'It's a testament to our body's own defenses—if they routinely made us ill, none of us would have a chance.'"

Okay, gross, but good to know people shouldn't be freaking out.

As for dramatic airplane tweet, they offered this advice to avoid such disaster:

"Some studies have shown that flushing sends a spray of water containing bacteria that settles on people and surrounding surfaces. In general, fecal particles are only worrisome if they've come from someone with intestinal illness or diarrhea, but the best advice I ever heard was to treat all airplane bathroom surfaces as if they are radioactive; keep the lid closed when flushing, use a paper towel to handle lid, faucets and door handles after washing hands, then use hand sanitizer once back at the seat as an extra precaution."

Done and done.