This blog was originally written as a test blog for 2oceansvibe News in April 2018.
In drought-ridden Cape Town it’s important to remain vigilant about cleanliness to prevent those not too pleasant diseases from spreading. “Oh I’m fine,” you might think. “I always wash my hands well – and quickly to save water! - in public restrooms and then dry them using the fancy hand dryers.”
However, while the hand dryer may be the easier option compared to paper towels (“plus no trees were cut down for them!” your hippy conscience might pipe in), it’s important to take into account the festering, yucky bacteria that are encasing and multiplying on your hands with each blow.
Forbes recently wrote an article about what a load of hot air hand dryers really are. According to their research, hand dryers “conjure up visions of a swirling cyclone of bacteria and other microbes.”
Yuck, right? They then went into detail about a study a team of bacteria enthusiasts carried out and the conclusions they came to:
“The team brought bacteria culture plates into 36 men's and women's bathrooms in an academic health centre and exposed these culture plates to the air blown from the hot air driers for 30 seconds. After this exposure, an average of 18 to 60 colonies of bacteria grew per plate. This included colonies of bacteria that could cause diseases in humans.”
While this outcomes might be surprising to some, this is not the first or only study that found hand dryers to be the equivalent to a sleazy night club for randy bacteria. For example, anther terrifying finding of a study was:
“…that hand dryers could disperse viruses up to 3 meters away.”
The thought of being in that 3 metre range is beyond gross, especially as it’s someone else’s blow!
Next time you are faced with the option of using a hand dryer or paper towel, I’m sure you’ll think twice about your options. Maybe the front of your jeans deserves to be the winner.
Source: Forbes
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