The gross reason you should never use bathroom hand dryers

If you use a hand dryer after washing your hands in a public bathroom then you’ve actually been taking germs with you when you leave.

It turns out that while you may be scrubbing your hands after using the loo, when you go on to use a hand dryer you’re just covering them in bacteria again.

Scientists from the University of Connecticut have discovered that the hot-air dryers in most public bathrooms actually suck up the germs from the bathroom and blow them onto your (formerly) clean hands.

Never use the bathroom hand dryers. Photo: Getty
Never use the bathroom hand dryers. Photo: Getty

Then of course you walk out, touching door handles and other things around your office or the restaurant you’re in – we don’t even want to think about it.

What’s worse, one of the most common bugs found in the air of a bathroom is E coli (from number twos) and when you start spreading that around it can trigger food poisoning, diarrhoea and vomiting.

Source: Giphy
Source: Giphy

The scientists tested the hand dryers in their own university bathrooms turning the dryers on in three different bathrooms and placing a special plate underneath for 30 seconds.

The tests revealed between 18-60 colonies of bacteria were left on the plates.

By comparison, the plates that were just exposed to the bathroom air itself showed an average of just 15 to 20 colonies.

The air hand dryers blow out is full of bacteria. Photo: Getty
The air hand dryers blow out is full of bacteria. Photo: Getty

“Potential human pathogens were recovered from plates exposed to hand dryer air whether or not a filter was present,” the authors wrote.

“And from bathroom air moved by a small fan.”

It comes after microbiology student Nicole Ward took to Facebook in February to show off the results of putting her hands inside a hand dryer for just three minutes.

Nicole Ward showed off these germs on Facebook. Photo: Facebook
Nicole Ward showed off these germs on Facebook. Photo: Facebook

She tested out the bacteria in the public hand dryers for an experiment.

“This is the several strains of possible pathogenic fungi and bacteria that you’re swirling around your hands, and you think you’re walking out with clean hands. You’re welcome," she wrote.

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