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 or you
will be transferring germs, no matter which method you use to dry.
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.
"To protect yourself against the new coronavirus, you should frequently clean your hands with an alcohol-based
hand rub or wash them with soap and water. Once your hands are cleaned, you should dry them thoroughly by
using paper towels or a warm air dryer."
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, this is the official advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO)
How hygienic are hand dryers?
How hygienic are hand dryers?
Sterilising hand dryers use a UVC or plasma generator to sterilise
not only the air passing through the hand dryer, but also emit an
active oxygen mix which sterilises the surfaces and air within the
washroom.
With this type of technology, the sterilising effect is carried
throughout the room, past the user's hands and helps maintain an
all-round clean air environment sterilising all surfaces - in the same
way as the OXIZONE Air Steriliser
HEPA-filtered air
The level of filtration in a hand dryer is crucial, we only consider
hand dryers with at least Hospital-grade HEPA 13 filtration to
be hygienic. HEPA-13 will capture 99.95% and HEPA-14 will
capture 99.995% of particles including bacteria and viruses.
Sterilising hand dryers
Antibacterial surface
Many yhand dryers use an antibacterial additive in the covers of
their hand dryers, including IONPURE™, Microban™, Steritouch™
to name a few. These additives include silver ions impregnated
within the surface coating. These silver ions react with the UV
light from the sun or artificial light and maintain a sterile surface
on the hand dryer.
What makes a hand dryer hygienic?
