Monday, June 08, 2009
The Dangers of Hand Driers
You know how all those companies that manufacture and market hot air hand driers have for so long pummeled home the Nanny type message that they are more hygienic than towels and paper?
Well, here's a funny thing, they're not!
Aside from not drying your hands at all efficiently (how many time have you had to finish the process off by wiping a still dripping paw on your trousers or skirt?), they spread more bugs than a bog standard (no pun intended) linen/paper towel.
One paper (Ngeow YF, Ong HW, Tan P. Dispersal of bacteria by an electric air hand dryer. Malays J Pathol. 1989 Aug;11:53-6.) found that air dryers dispersed marker bacteria in a radius of three feet and onto the investigator's laboratory coat.
Another study (Rebecca Montville, Yuhuan Chen and Donald W. Schaffner, Risk assessment of hand washing efficacy using literature and experimental data, International Journal of Food Microbiology, Volume 73, Issues 2-3, 11 March 2002, Pages 305-313) found that hot air dryers had the capacity to increase the bacterial count on the skin, and that paper towel drying decreased skin bacterial count. This is agreed upon by another study (Gould D. The significance of hand-drying in the prevention of infection.
Nurs Times. 1994 Nov 23-29;90(47):33-5) found that the mechanical action of paper towel drying removed bacteria, which is something hand dryers cannot do.
Pah!
What brought all of this bubbling to my mind?
Well, believe it or not, I have Nanny to thank. My partner Eva, who is currently on a teaching course, advises me that there is some form of government public health information out there advising us how to best wash our hands (wrt MRSA and Piggy Flu); seemingly Nanny cautions against hot air hand driers.
I have always felt that hand driers were a complete waste of space, now I have scientific evidence to back up my prejudice!
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I am not keen either on hot air hand dryers.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that a business sees the following advantages in using them:-
1) Nothing to restock.
2) No mess from disgarded towels.
3) No need to employ someone to clean up the disgarded towels or replenish the towels.
For me though, the major disadvantage of hot air hand dryers is that they don't do the job!!
I must confess to being rather surprised by these findings, although my own experiences of using electric hand dryers has ranged from very good, to bloody useless! However, in the light of this, perhaps I should reconsider my position?
ReplyDeleteRegardless of efficacy, those Dyson cycloney ones are fucking awesome. Us engineering geeks were making many unnecessary toilet breaks just to use them as soon they were installed.
ReplyDeleteWeird to find you praising Nanny, Ken!
ReplyDeleteCan't think why Nanny is so against hot air dryers, seeing that hot air is the main ingredient of most of Nanny's strictures.
I'm sure Tonk's reasons are correct. But if an enterprising manufacturer came up with a version which doesn't recirculate "dirty" air - some type of filter maybe? - they would make a killing. Er, maybe that wasn't the best choice of word!
ReplyDeleteA new "Touch Screen" booking in system has been introduced at the local hospital. It's intended to reduce waiting times, but complaints have surfaced regarding the risk of infections being spread by its use.
You couldn't make it up!
Shouldn't they really be labelled " party political broadcast"
ReplyDelete