Hand air dryers in public restrooms should be avoided at all costs

In case you didn't learn this LONG before Covid-19, hand air dryers that are in public restrooms to dry your hands after washing should be avoided at all costs. According to a Harvard Health blog article dated May 11, 2018, bacteria is multiplied from the bathroom air which dirties up your hands when you use the hand air dryers on your hands (with only minimal amounts of bacteria on the nozzles of the air dryers). According to this blog, researchers attached high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters to the dryers, which would eliminate most of the bacteria from the air passing through the dryer. When they exposed petri dishes to air from the hand dryers again, the quantity of bacteria in the dishes had fallen by 75%. They concluded that most of the bacterial splatter from the hand dryers had come from the washroom air such as when toilets are flushed with an open lid. Carly's comment (the founder, implementor, & manager of this Covid blog you're reading): I'm sure many have noticed that many public restrooms don't even have lids on their toilets so closing the toilet after using isn't an option. As I already knew, drying your hands on paper towels is your best option. It was interesting to find from this same article at this Harvard Health blog that not drying your hands can spread more bacteria so it's important to dry your hands (I've done this in general as I don't like having wet hands), so do what you gotta do to get your hands dry (I popped into the men's restroom at Fred Meyer [a grocery & department store in one] in Tacoma within the last couple months to use their paper towels their door was left open) & told an older black guy that was headed to the paper towels that the women's restroom ran out so that's why I was in there (he seemed totally cool with it replying, "I know.") 😊


Don't use hand air dryers in public restrooms.


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