



Concerns about the hygiene and safety of traveling on airplanes is spiking after it was revealed that the latest American Ebola patient — a nurse — traveled on commercial flight after treating another Ebola patient, a decision the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said wasn’t appropriate.



Last week, 200 airline cabin cleaners refused to go to work at LaGuardia Airport, declaring they were not receiving enough protection. The Centers for Disease Control has issued guidelines for how cabin cleaners should be protected, but no federal agency explicitly regulates the procedure, and standards vary widely across airlines.



Even without Ebola, dealing with passenger detritus is an unpleasant job.



Luke-Anthony, paid $9 an hour, doesn’t have to deal with the bathroom waste. That’s a whole different company. But he takes on pretty much everything else, including everything passengers leave behind.



“Food, wet napkins, sanitary wipes, dirty Pampers. It’s disgusting,” Luke-Anthony says. “Sometimes we find dirty needles.”



Twelve bags of trash get hauled from a big plane, he says.



The New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, a coalition of labor and community groups, says the conditions for cabin cleaners can be dangerous, in particular given the exposure of workers to harsh cleaning chemicals.



According a recent report by the group, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued 14 citations in March to a cleaning contractor at JFK’s Terminal 8, including the absence of a plan for dealing with bloodborne pathogens, and the failure to provide puncture-proof containers for the disposal of needles. The report didn’t name the contractor.



The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is responsible for overseeing the airport, did not respond to a call for comment on the report on Wednesday.



Luke-Anthony knows he comes into contact with bodily fluids, but it doesn’t bother him. He hasn’t gotten sick yet. And despite the news that an Ebola patient had traveled on a plane, he keeps showing up for work.