How hygienic are you?
Newsflash : If you don't wash your hands, they wont be clean!
All advice (especially in light of the COVID pandemic) is to wash
your hands with warm, soapy water for at least 20 seconds
before drying them, either with hand towels or a hand dryer.
Your hands must be completely clean before your dry, and
completely dry after drying or you will be transferring germs,
no matter which method you use.
Paper towel manufacturers have famously carried out tests on
the spread of germs when using hand dryers, but some of these
tests have been carried out on artificially and unfeasibly dirty
hands which are obviously going to shed bacteria.
Much mis-information is in circulation since (and before) the coronavirus pandemic. One such piece of mis-information is
in relation to the use of hand dryers.
To help clear this up, lets see what the expert say :
How hygienic are hand dryers?
Antibacterial surface
Many hand dryer manufacturers use an antibacterial additive in
the covers of their hand dryers, including IONPURE™, Microban™,
Steritouch™ to name a few.
These additives include silver and/or copper ions impregnated
within the surface coating. These silver/copper ions react with
the UV light from the sun or artificial light or moisture in the air
and maintain a sterile surface on the hand dryer.
People who do not wash their hands also do not dry them.
So any testing on the spread of germs by using any method of hand drying when hands are
coated in bacteria is not realistic and, indeed, misleading.
