While people’s efforts go towards being eco-friendly to save the environment from further global warming, people might wanna take a step back when it comes to hand dryers vs. paper towels.
Turns out, bathroom hand dryers harbor myriad types of bacteria, and they’re far from sanitary. Scientist Ruth (known as Devon Science on TikTok) has conducted an experiment to prove this fact.
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Her TikTok went viral
Garnering over 4.7 million views, her video about how unsanitary public restroom hand dryers are went viral. She simply put an agar plate under a dryer as it blew air out, collecting whatever was produced.
Then, she got another plate to collect the air from her room and left the two plates overnight.
The results were shocking
The results were beyond disturbing, as the plate with the hand dryer air had different types of bacteria, and fungi across the plate. They formed disgusting yellow-looking spots, in addition to some black and white smudges.
As for the room air plate, which signified someone waving their hands dry, stayed totally clear.
But what about paper towels?
Scientist Ruth didn’t forget about paper towels, she brought an agar plate and rubbed the paper towel on it in another video. Unfortunately, the paper towel also grew bacteria, but at least it is way less than those that were on the hand dryer plate.
She wanted to prove her point further
To prove that she’s allocated the right source of bacteria coming from the hand dryer, she swabbed the inside of the dryer, which turned the cotton bud black, and put that on another agar plate.
The result was the growth of several kinds of bacteria looking closely similar to what was being blown out.
The conclusion she came to
“Now I know where the bacteria are coming from, they are actually living inside the machine,” scientist Ruth concluded. The types of bacteria coming from the machine weren’t specified.
This conclusion is very disturbing as this means that to ensure your hands are clean, you have to wait for them to dry by themselves, which of course, takes long.
Thhe bacteria that could be lurking
According to DailyMail, previous research showed that the bacteria and germs lingering in the bathroom could be E. coli, hepatitis and bacteria found in feces.
In addition, former studies proposed that hand dryers may fire bacteria onto people’s hands when they suck in the air around them, where the bacteria may be.
Users were far from pleased
One user pointed out: “What scares me is I work for the NHS and they took away our hand towels and we are forced to use the hand dryers..even removed the bins so couldn’t use the loo roll to dry!”
This user was not the only one
Another user said: “I stopped using hand dryers after seeing these videos.” And a third one warned about using hand dryers, saying: “Neeeeever use hand dryers,” and after seeing scientist Ruth’s video, they all had the right to say so.
A 2018 study had its own conclusions
A study conducted at the University of Connecticut and Quinnipiac University was investigating whether hot-air hand dryers in public bathrooms were sucking up bacteria from the surrounding air and dumping them on newly washed hands or not.
They exposed a petri dish to the hand dryer’s air as well for 30 seconds. A mind-rattling 254 colonies of bacteria sprouted inside the dish.
They also added a filter
After that, the researchers attached a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter to the hand dryer to prevent the bacteria from the air from passing through the dryer. The quantity of bacteria in the dishes had fallen by 75%.
The conclusion of the study suggested most of the bacteria being sprayed out of the hand-dryers came from the air in the public toilet.
