Is it true that drying your hands with paper towels in a public restroom is more hygienic than using a dryer?

There is an argument that hand dryers in public restrooms are breeding grounds for harmful germs, and using paper towels is a safer choice. We decided to check if this is true.

Many media outlets have reported that it is best to avoid hand dryers in public restrooms (for example, “Russian newspaper", "Gazeta.ru" and TV channel "World"), and also portals, dedicated motherhood And hygiene. Recommends choosing paper towels and Russian Rospotrebnadzor. Users also discuss the pros and cons of two ways to remove moisture from hands after washing social networks And blogging platforms. Sheldon Cooper, the germ-phobic character from The Big Bang Theory, spokethat using dryers is even less hygienic than if a plague-infected gibbon sneezed on his hands.

Bacteria are transmitted more quickly from objects around a person through wet skin than through dry skin, so experts say that drying your hands is just as integral part hygieneas well as washing them. Hand dryers are divided into two main types: hot air (those that you need to put your hands under) and jet (those where you need to put your palms inside the device). To dry your hands, in the first case will be required about 45 seconds, in the second you can cope with faster - in just 10 seconds, about the same time it will take using paper towels. However, people often do not have the patience to dry their hands thoroughly. So, scientists from the University of Auckland (New Zealand), during observations of public restrooms, recorded that men spend on average 17 seconds using the dryer, and 3.5 seconds using paper towels, women - 13.3 and 5.2 seconds. respectively. So in this regard, jet dryers, which can handle moisture in 10 seconds, seem to be the preferred choice. But if you still dry your hands as expected, the conclusions may be slightly different.

Thus, scientists from the University of Westminster (UK) published in 2008 study, where they studied the effectiveness and hygiene of using several types of paper towels, as well as jet dryers and hot air dryers. In a study of samples taken from the skin of people who participated in the experiment, it was found that using paper towels reduced the amount of bacteria remaining on the palms after washing, while both types of dryers increased it. The greatest number of bacteria was found after drying with hot air. At the same time, scientists say, dryers not only increased the number of bacteria on the hands, but also “sprayed” them at a distance of up to 2 m around. However, the study was carried out a decade and a half ago, and it is possible that during this time the dryer mechanisms have become more advanced and, accordingly, somewhat more hygienic.

However, ten years later conclusion A group of researchers from the UK, Italy and France also reported that paper towels are safer. Over the course of 12 weeks, they took samples from the restrooms of three hospitals located in these countries. It turned out that where paper towel holders were installed, the concentration of microbes in the air and on surfaces was significantly lower than where visitors were asked to use jet dryers. 

Even study, which was conducted in 2010 and funded by Dyson, one of the key manufacturers of jet hand dryers, confirmed that paper towels are more effective at removing germs from the palms after washing. The researchers note that this is likely due to the physical removal of bacteria from the skin through friction.

"Verified" already wrote that when you flush a toilet with the lid open, bacteria from it scatter throughout the bathroom and settle on all accessible surfaces, including, probably, paper towels sticking out of the holder. However, in 2018, a group of researchers from the University of Connecticut (USA) conducted experiment: They examined the amount of bacteria in public restrooms by leaving petri dishes in different areas of the toilet and by placing them under hot air jets in hand dryers. A significantly larger number of bacteria were found in those containers that were located in dryers. Most of them were not dangerous to humans, but some were discovered that could seriously harm health. Moreover, the filters built into the dryer reduced the number of bacteria, but did not solve the problem completely. So even though paper towels can harbor germs, they are still more hygienic than dryer sheets, according to this study.

In 2022, American Dallin Lewis, passionate about science, conducted his own experimentto find out how safe it is to use hand dryers, and presented clear results. He placed Petri dishes in different types of dryers for a few seconds in public restrooms at a movie theater, a gas station, and a convenience store. He then put them in an incubator for three days. In all containers, bacteria showed growth visible to the naked eye. However, the results of the experiment cannot be considered strictly scientific, since, not being a professional researcher, Lewis might not have taken into account some factors. In addition, he recommends not drying his hands at all, justifying this by the fact that the Petri dish, which he simply waved in the air, simulating shaking off moisture from his hands, remained visually clean. This contradicts recommendations reputable medical organizations, such as the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Lewis did not make any comparisons using paper towels to dry hands.

Meta-analysis Scientific research on the hygiene of different methods of drying hands after washing, conducted in 2012 by a group of scientists from the American independent research center Mayo Clinic, confirmed that paper towels are a more effective and safe choice. But researchers from the University of Arizona (USA) in 2020 not found There is ample evidence in existing scientific work that paper towels have any major health and safety benefits over dryers.

Thus, most of the reputable research that “Verified” has found suggests that using paper towels in public restrooms is indeed more hygienic compared to hand dryers. However, there are also scientific works that indicate that dryers are also quite effective and safe. Be that as it may, if there are no paper towels in the restroom, it’s better take advantage dryer rather than simply leaving your hands wet or wiping them on clothes - this can lead to a faster spread of germs and negate the effect of washing your hands.

Cover photo: canva.com

Most likely true

What do our verdicts mean?

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