A Canadian woman who was arrested for not holding on to an escalator handrail has been awarded $20,000 in damages by the nation's Supreme Court.

LG Innotek and Clearwin claim that their new sterilizer can wipe out 99.99 percent of germs on handrails through a process known as ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI).

The handrail sterilizers were tested in Terminal B at the airport, said Lenis Rodrigues, a Port Authority spokeswoman. The UV lights are located out of sight of passengers inside the escalator.