Restroom hand dryers spew fecal matter onto our hands

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | April 13, 2018 | By David Curran

[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.

[roadcat]

Everyone, including the unopened, had fecal matter on them.

Myth Busters are not scientists, their "studies" are not scientific. Their fecal test is faulty, and most likely a compromised test - especially if sealed unopened brushes tested positive.

[deadrock]

Ha. Ok.

[Ozark Tom]

One curious finding is the air nozzle of the hand dryers was swabbed, but no bacteria were collected from that testing. Perhaps the bacteria are initially on the floor, stirred by the forceful air blast into circulation? The appliance itself doesn’t seem a likely breeding ground for microbes.