Hand Dryers Bringing Bacteria Back, or Are They?

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So I’m in a bathroom at LBCC standing in front of a sink with my hands up like a heart surgeon. I just dropped a heinous deuce and washed my hands, but there's a problem; I can’t dry them.

The only things available to aid this situation are those Dyson jet hand dryers. They do get the job done in regards to drying my hands, but they coat my hands with microbes of poo.

Most of which are not my own.

Now, I would trust Dyson telling me that their hand dryers are the “most hygenic” out there, but I don’t. Honestly, Dyson’s assurance of the cleanliness of their dryers is like a lettuce supplier advertising that their lettuce is E-coli-free. It’d make me a little concerned.

So I decided to do a little digging and what I found was surprising.

A review done by the Mayo Clinic (“The Hygienic Efficacy of Different Hand-Drying Methods: A Review of the Evidence,” Huang, et. al) reports that jet dryers are almost as effective in drying hands as the good ole’ paper towel, and transmission of bacteria is more likely to happen from wet skin than dry skin. I must stress that the same report by the Mayo Clinic says the hand dryers spread more bacteria than paper towels.

Gross. Why would LBCC want to spread germs around?

Kevin Lacey, maintenance assistant director at LBCC says the jet dryers are environmentally friendly, don’t need to be restocked, and are equipped with HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filters that filter out 99 percent of the bacteria from the air that is being sucked in. This changes things.

Science and technology reporter Emma Bryce wrote an article for Slate.com titled “Hand Dryer vs Paper Towel: Which Is Cleaner?” Bryce reports that HEPA filters make it so the dryers blow clean air but it’s still not as hygienic as paper towels because the Dyson dryers still spread 1300 times more bacteria. That’s why you don’t see hand dryers in hospitals, so that pathogens don’t spread around since the hospital is the place you go when you get that nasty E. coli, and nobody wants that flying around.

The thing is, unlike hospitals, LBCC is a college where, as far as I know, heart surgery isn’t being performed on a regular basis and, hopefully, LBCC isn’t known to have E. coli.

Furthermore, I assume we all learned sometime in preschool that the most important things when it comes to hand hygiene is washing your hands properly and making sure that they are dryer than the Mojave Desert right after.

Remember those HEPA filters I was talking about and how they blow clean air while drying hands effectively? Well, the bacteria that gets blown around is mostly from hands not properly washed, and with people being in a rush, sometimes their hand hygiene is subpar.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather follow the path of my ancestors and kill trees to dry my hands, but with that said the jet dryers get the GED (Good Enough Drying) when it comes to hygiene at our school. Now if LBCC is a place where hygiene is paramount (like hospitals), I would smash those dryers with a baseball bat Roadrunner-style and install paper towels myself.

This all boils down to one thing, if you are like me concerned about your hygiene, then the next time you wash your hands make sure you’re getting in under your nails, between your fingers (don't neglect your thumbs), and your wrists, and make sure your hands are completely dry before walking out and trash-talking those hard-working hand dryers who don't even get paid for their efforts.