Posted on 04/14/2018 6:58:30 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
While washing your hands after using the restroom is always recommended hygiene, a recent study might have you thinking twice about using a hand dryer afterward.
University of Connecticut researchers have found that hand dryers suck in bacteria from the air in the bathrooms and then spit it back out onto your hands. And when we say bacteria, we mean fecal matter from the toilet.
"Bacteria in bathrooms will come from feces, which can be aerosolized a bit when toilets, especially lidless toilets, are flushed," study author Peter Setlow told Newsweek.
In the study that was published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, "hot-air hand dryers in multiple men's and women's bathrooms in three basic science research areas in an academic health center were screened for their deposition on plates of total bacteria," and what the researchers found was that "plates exposed to hand dryer air for 30 s averaged 18 to 60 colonies/plate."
The University of Connecticut has added paper towels to all 36 of the bathrooms used in the study.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Chit happens
This, coming from San Freakcisco, which is little more than an open-air toilet.
SHTF! First in!
Green Movement shoes still more unintended consequences. Not to mention increased energy consumption of the “dryers”.
In that case, you are already breathing it in - so I don’t think a hand dryer adds much to the problem.
This has been known for years.
The blow dryer manufacturers could install hepa filters into the air intakes and deliver warm sterile air to dry hands. Or the paper towel dispenser makers could come up with better dispensers. The best I’ve seen roll out a length of paper towel when you wave your hands at them. You don’t have to touch anything, and you can use the towel to open the door.
If E. coli comes, can Salmonella be far behind?
The force of your lungs is weak compared to the force of the blow dryer. I do not think you dislodge many bacteria from surfaces just by breathing.
And now the zhit hits the fan.
And here I fell for it...
Good thing we didn’t step in it!
LOL!
We must live in an imaginary world because, based on present-day knowledge, there is NO WAY humanity could have survived in the past. The horrors of hand dryers sucking feces out of the air and blowing it on your hand!!
I’ve seen some blowers markered after “Saves trees” with “BURNS COAL”.
This “Too much bacon” is a concept that is foreign to me.
Glad I don’t use public toilets.
Well, I would choose a barrel of fine brandy myself, but it is much the same thing.
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