The spread of viruses in the standard hand dryer and hand towels was significantly less, at 75 centimeters and 25 centimeters, respectively.
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A voice over in the video says, “Recent tests carried out in Chicago and NY show up to 88 percent of unused paper towels contain bacteria”. Most of the times it does so in the form of a new soap, or a new type of faucet, but sometimes it comes in the form of a new product to dry your hands.
The Journal of Applied Microbiology has published research about hot-air dryers like the Dyson Airblade and how effective they are at spreading viruses.
Furthermore, the Dyson spreads viruses further than any other hand drying method.
The paper towel industry has scare mongered with this research for the past four years. The research did not include bacteria, which can also spread disease.
This enabled us to see how the virus was spread vertically from people’s hands as they dried them, and where it ended up.
Stick to paper towels – they only spread viruses about 10 inches.
The team of researchers also investigated that by putting on gloves, washing their hands in a suspension of viruses that infect bacteria (bacteriophages), and then testing each hand drying method. They are much better at drying your hands quickly than a standard hand dryer, meaning I can exit the usually unhygienic restroom area that much more quickly.
By far, the jet dryer was the biggest viral spreader in all measurements.
The significance of these numerical differences means that in locations where hygiene is especially important to prevent the spread of disease, such as hospitals, GP surgeries and restaurants, the choice of hand-drying method should be considered very carefully – and paper towels win hands down.
On the other hand, representatives from the Dyson company are claiming that the studies are tampered with by the paper towel industry.
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In 2014 a similar study by researchers from the University of Leeds found that airborne germ counts were 27 times higher around jet air dryers in comparison with the air around paper towel dispensers.
