Avoiding Public Transit Cooties

"This year, the TranStrap was launched in the U.S. It's a personal hand loop that you hook on the subway overhead bar, thus avoiding any unwanted contact. 'I found out that many people who use public transit do so under deep distress,' writes inventor Stan Dolberg on his website, transtrap.com. 'They worry about getting sick from sharing bars and poles.'

Then came the 'City Mitt,' a performance microfibre glove embedded with silver ions, which are naturally antimicrobial, says Emily Beck, the developer from Wilmington, Del., who also works in New York. When she moved to Manhattan and took the subway for the first time, she found it 'extremely dirty, and noticed that so many others felt the same way â€" balancing themselves on one finger on the chrome poles,' Beck says in an interview."

Additionally, the Toronto Transit Commission is planning to order the first subway cars with "an antimicrobial covering on all surfaces that are meant to be held, such as vertical and horizontal bars and metal handles."