Study Proves That Paper Towels Are Superior to Hand Dryers
We're not sure when we first noticed hand dryers popping up in public bathrooms, but we can tell you that we're not fans. Never have been and never will be. How, exactly, air blowing on our hands for 30 seconds was supposed to dry them was always puzzling to us, and guess what? Now we have science backing us.
“Paper towels should be recommended in locations where hygiene is paramount, such as hospitals and clinics.”
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In a paper titled "The Hygienic Efficacy of Different Hand-Drying Methods: A Review of the Evidence," a fellow distruster of hand dryers, biomedical scientist Cunrui Huang, is letting the world know about how terrible hand dryers are. Huang, a native of Australia, reviewed 12 studies about drying hands with paper towels or hand driers. He found that time and again, paper towels were better.
One study Huang analyzed found that towels leave hands 96 per cent dry after a mere ten seconds. And after 15 seconds? Oh now we're talking baby: Your hands are 99 percent dry. Hand dryers, on other hand, require 45 seconds to dry your hands properly. Who's standing at a hand dryer for 45 seconds? Not us. In fact, we're not alone in that regard. A study on that subject found that the average guy uses a hand dryer for 17 seconds.
Never Trust Public Hand Dryers Again
Want actually clean hands in public? Carry a small pack of quick-dry paper towels or single-use bamboo towels in your bag. Takes 2 seconds, zero airborne fecal confetti.
The dryness of hands is important because it helps keep bacteria from spreading. But when you use hand dryers, all they do is blast the germs into the air, says Keith Redway, a senior academic in Microbiology and Molecular Biology, at Australia's Westminster University. "This [using a hand dryer] can increase the number of germs by an astonishing 255 percent," he explained. Oh, and we didn't even mention that the key step in hand dryers is rubbing your hands together. Guess what? Bad for you! "Rubbing hands while under hot-air dryers leads to greater bacterial numbers and airborne dissemination," Huang writes. "It might be that rubbing hands causes bacteria to migrate from hair follicles to the skin surface." Hell yeah it does!
"This review found little agreement regarding the relative effectiveness of electric air dryers," explains Huang, in his report's conclusion. "However, most studies suggest that paper towels can dry hands efficiently, remove bacteria effectively, and cause less contamination of the washroom environment. From a hygiene viewpoint, paper towels are superior to electric air dryers. Paper towels should be recommended in locations where hygiene is paramount, such as hospitals and clinics."
Will Huang's findings mean the end of hand dryers? And yes, we're even talking about those "fancy" blade dryers from Dyson that you dip your hands into. Like that's going to fool us. Paper towels or die baby! Or maybe we'll just keep not washing our hands.
