Hand dryer is much worse than paper towels; know why
Drying machines can increase the risk of spreading diseases like H1N1 flu.It's a fight to dry your hands: hot air machines have begun to spread through the bathrooms because they look like a more sustainable alternative to paper towels. But a study from the University of Westminster showed that in terms of hygiene, dryers are far behind - they spread 1,300 times more bacteria than disposable towels.
In the experiment, participants wore gloves and, with them, passed a liquid solution containing the MS2 virus. They then tested different drying methods: paper towels, hot air machines (those traditional roadside trucks that seem to take millennia to dry their hands) and air-jet dryers like Dyson's Air Blade. In this type, the user places his hands inside the apparatus and the impact of the air is much more intense.
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Whoever wore the towel spread virus up to 25 cm around where it was. The hot air machines threw the virus 75 cm away. The air-jet machines were real launchers of microorganisms, spreading the virus by 3 meters. In addition to contaminating a larger area, the equipment also spreads more viruses.
This was not the first study to mention the lack of hygiene of jet dryers. In 2005, another study said that paper towels reduced the amount of bacteria in the skin by 24%, while air jets increased by 117% the number of microorganisms. The problem is that the study was commissioned by the German paper industry association. That is, there was an incentive for the study to speak well of paper towels, and to criticize its competitors, the machines.