SEVERAL READERS ASK THE SAME QUESTION:

I’d suggest that anyone thinking of opting for the “pat downs” may want to ask the TSA agent when they last changed their gloves. I would worry about just what little “friends” were being carried on the gloves from previous searches.

And reader Benjamin Wang emails:

A disgusting thought, but I’ve never seen a TSA screener change gloves. It would be interesting to send in a HAZMAT team to test several sets of gloves and see what’s on them. And publicize the results.

Remember: The gloves are for their protection. Not yours.

UPDATE: Reader Daniel Briggs writes:

What a bunch of whiners. We walk through a body scan but some consider that too invasive. So then we’re subjected to pat-downs, aggressive ones at that. What the heck do we EXPECT?! We’re at war. . . . Better to suffer a little indignity than a major calamity.

I guess if I felt that the Administration were serious, I’d feel differently. But I’ve always been hard on the Homeland Security side of things, because it’s always been a clown show. Sorry. Always.

Plus, Dr. Alan Reitz emails on the glove-changing thing: “As a health care provider, I thought of this issue last week while going through the airport. If I did not change gloves between patients even if touching the patient on the arm, the health/infection control department would come down like a ton of bricks.”