Washing hands after using the toilet is one of the basic hygiene practices that we all follow.
But using hand dryer after washing hands may undo all our efforts to stay clean and hygienic. Surprised? So are we.
But then you cannot leave the place with your hands wet and drippy. If you enter the public toilet, you hope to see an air hand dryer after using the toilet.
Air hand dryers are little machines that blow heat to your hands and help them get dried, but do you know that they may be spreading more germs?
During the Covid Era, researchers from the University of Cambridge set out to determine if doctors should dry their hands with air dryers. The researcher asked participants to dry their hands, either using tissue papers or an air dryer, but before that, they simulated contaminated hands by putting some harmless viruses on their hands.
When the researchers compared those who used an air dryer with those who used a tissue paper, they found that the people who dried their hands using the air dryer had spread more of the virus.
“A new study from the University of Connecticut and Quinnipiac University shows that hot-air dryers may be acting like bacterial bombs, shooting loads of spores from bathroom air directly onto your hands,” Healthline reports.
Healio writes; “Automatic hand dryers in men’s and women’s public restrooms can harbor and spread bacteria, including Staphylococcus and fecal matter, according to research presented during ASM Microbe.”
The reason for these hot air hand dryers in the first was that people thought it was the best for the environment instead of paper towels or tissue papers, but with this information insight, it might be better to use tissue papers.
Drying wet hands after using the toilet is a crucial part of hygiene and preventing the spread of germs, just don’t use an air dryer.
