
It has been a commonly held belief and subject to multiple studies but now it is reinforced.
Toilet hot-air hand-dryers may leave your hands dirtier than ever!
A study showed that plates exposed to 30 seconds of the dryer gained 18 to 60 colonies of bacteria while those exposed to bathroom air for two minutes had less than one.
The study authors say ‘results indicate that many kinds of bacteria, including potential pathogens and spores, can be deposited on hands exposed to bathroom hand dryers, and that spores could be dispersed throughout buildings and deposited on hands by hand dryers’.
What they do not know is whether this was because the dryer harboured bacteria or simply blew contaminated air.
The study noted that hand dryers with certain types of filters, called HEPA filters, could reduce the bacteria fourfold.
It was published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology
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