Why Using Hand Dryer is a serious health risk

Why Using Hand Dryer is a serious health risk

Hand dryers especially the ones that are operated in public restrooms are a health hazard, a new research now shows.

“These machines can fire these germ projectiles to a distance of 0.25 meters which increases the severity when compared to a normal paper towel which cannot do that. After conducting many tests, it has been found that there are 100 times more viral particles present in the air after using these dryers compared to the paper towels.”

“The efficiency of hand drying is important in preventing pathogen spread, but knowledge surrounding which drying methods contribute least towards contamination of the environment and users is limited,” said Mark Wilcox, of the University of Leeds in the UK.

According to previous research, usually after visiting the toilet a person has around 200 million bacteria per square inch on each hand. And hands contaminated with bacteria can transfer them to five more surfaces or 14 other subjects, research shows.

How Hand Dryer works

The machine is designed in such a way that when a person places his/her hands near it , a strong stream of warm air is blown across them for a certain period of time. This warm air stream dries the wet hands of the user. A simple yet effective way to do the job of a hand tissue , minus the environmental risk of cutting trees.

The inherent risk in a Hand Dryer

Gadgets like Dyson hand dryer assumes the user has cleaned his hands well and has disinfected the potential germs they may posses. In this perfect scenario , the hand dryer merely spreads water vapor in the surrounding area of its usage. But that may not be the case when it comes to realty.There have been many instances where people use the restroom and don’t wash their hands well. When these people use the dryer, the machine literally blows off germs present like projectiles into the surrounding area. The people in that place have a high risk of catching an infection from those germ projectiles.

According to a research published in the Journal of Hospital Infection , air-blown hand dryers in public rest rooms may spread far more germs than conventional paper towels.

Compared with paper towels , these machines are known to spread 1300 times as many germs as a paper towel would spread. This has been verified in the recent studies published in the  Journal of Applied Microbiology. 

How grave is the risk?

Compared with paper towels , these machines are known to spread 1300 times as many germs as a paper towel would spread. This has been verified in the recent studies published in the  Journal of Applied Microbiology. These machines can fire these germ projectiles to a distance of 0.25 meters which increases the severity when compared to a normal paper towel which cannot do that. After conducting many tests, it has been found that there are 100 times more viral particles present in the air after using these dryers compared to the paper towels.

How the study was conducted

To compare three common hand-drying methods (jet-air and warm-air dryers, and paper towels) in contaminating the environment, users and bystanders, the investigators placed a bacteria specimen on the hands of volunteers.

Airborne bacteria levels were measured to determine the efficacy of the three methods. “Bacteria levels in the air around jet-air dyers were four-and-a-half times higher than warm-air dryers and 27 times higher than the air around paper towel dispensers. The bacteria persisted in the air around hand dryers long after they were used,” said the study.

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