Have you ever wondered just how far germs travel when you sneeze or cough?
Well, it turns out it’s quite some distance – so you may want to take extra care when it comes to covering your mouth.
Impressively, the force of a sneeze can send around 100,000 germs a huge distance – up to 25 feet, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
This is further than originally believed, and the more recently discovered distance is all thanks to a previously undetected gas bubble known as a “multiphase turbulent buoyant bubble.”
And when it comes to sneezing, things get particularly gross because, when a person sneezes, they also send out tiny droplets of snot flying into the air.
Sneezes start at the back of the throat and can spread as many as 40,000 droplets of snot at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour.
If the person has a cold or the flu, this mucus has the potential to infect those around them.
Coughs aren’t quite so grim – but they can still travel a fair way.
According to Science Focus, coughing spreads droplets as far as 20 feet – and the germy particles can stay suspended in their air for up to 10 minutes.
A typical cough starts with a deep intake of breath, followed by a compression of air in the lungs. The resulting cough is the air being forced out in a fraction of a second.
The average human cough shoots air out of the lungs in a jet several feet long – along with droplets of saliva.
About 3,000 droplets are expelled in a single cough and these have the ability to fly through the air at speeds of up to 50 miles per hour.
According to the CDC: “Most experts think that flu viruses are spread mainly by droplets made when people with the flu cough, sneeze or talk.
“These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs.”
So you may want to cover your face even if it isn’t you who is sneezing or coughing.