The Health Risks of Having Ice in Your Drink on a Plane

There’s nothing quite like an ice-cold drink. Although we can drink water without ice, most cold drinks need ice, if not in the beginning, then eventually, except for white wine. Please don’t put ice in your wine. But I digress.

There are those adult beverages, too, where a couple of cubes of ice go a long way. When flying, pouring those cute little bourbons or whiskey over cubes of ice in a cup is the only way to sit back, relax, and enjoy your flight.

Now, what if I told you you may want to avoid the ice on airplanes?

According to the Islands website, those scoopers in the ice bin on the planes aren’t cleaned as much as maybe we’d like to think it is, which means minor mildew is possible. Mildew means E. Coli is possible or other forms of bacteria.

As a matter of fact, according to the  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, water tanks on airplanes are prone to microbial growth because they’re rarely sanitized or even emptied.

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This includes the water from those tanks that are used to make the coffee and tea, too, by the way.

However, in reality, we come into contact with bacteria all the time. That’s life. As human beings, our immune system fights to ward off sickness daily, so according to Redbook Magazine, you’ll most likely be fine and not find yourself getting up from your seat and running to the lavatory every half hour.

If you want to play it safe, just bring your own drinks on board and only drink bottled water off the drink and food cart.