Hindustan Times: Jet-air hand dryers should not be used in hospital toilets as they spread more germs than disposable paper towels, a study warns. Published in the Journal of Hospital Infection, the study looked at bacterial spread in a real world setting — in two toilets in each of three hospitals, which were in the UK, France and Italy.
Each of the toilets had paper towel dispensers and jet-air dryers, but only one of these was in use on any given day. “The problem starts because some people do not wash their hands properly,” said Mark Wilcox, a professor at University of Leeds in the UK. “When people use a jet-air dryer, the microbes get blown off and spread around the toilet room,” said Wilcox.“In effect, the dryer creates an aerosol that contaminates the toilet room, including the dryer itself and potentially the sinks, floor and other surfaces, depending on the dryer design and where it is sited,” he said. “If people touch those surfaces, they risk becoming contaminated by bacteria or viruses,” he added.
Jet-air dryers often rely on no-touch technology to initiate hand drying. However, paper towels absorb the water and microbes left on the hands and if they are disposed of properly, there is less potential for cross-contamination, researchers said. The research follows a previous laboratory-based study led by the same team, which found that jet-air dryers were much worse than paper towels or traditional warm air hand dryers when it came to spreading germs.
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