XPost: alt.bathroom, alt.health, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.politics.democrats   
   From: democrat.perverts@cnn.com   
      
   A new study has found that hand dryers may be just spreading   
   around bacteria in the bathroom and are not hygenic at all.   
      
   An alarming new study claims that you are better off not using   
   those hand dryers in public bathrooms, because they may actually   
   be making your hands dirtier. The study, published in the   
   journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, determined that   
   hot air hand dryers spread around all the bacteria that gathers   
   in the bathroom despite the fact that they often advertise how   
   hygenic they are.   
      
   The problem is that while hand dryers may indeed allow people to   
   avoid touching more surfaces when drying their hands, it is   
   negated by the fact that the air simply redeposits the bacteria   
   all around the bathroom, scientists say. As a result, these hand   
   dryers can cause disease and infections for some people, they   
   warn.   
      
   The study examined 36 men’s and women’s bathrooms at the   
   University of Connecticut School of Medicine and held up test   
   plates to hand dryer air, where they found as many as 60   
   different colonies of bacteria while air drying for 30 seconds.   
   The air itself that comes from the dryers is clean, it is the   
   rest of the bathroom air that it pushes around that is not.   
      
   The abstract from the paper follows below.   
      
   Hot-air hand dryers in multiple men’s and women’s bathrooms in   
   three basic science research areas in an academic health center   
   were screened for their deposition on plates of (i) total   
   bacteria, some of which were identified, and (ii) a kanamycin-   
   resistant Bacillus subtilis strain, PS533, spores of which are   
   produced in large amounts in one basic science research   
   laboratory.   
      
   Plates exposed to hand dryer air for 30 s averaged 18 to 60   
   colonies/plate; but interior hand dryer nozzle surfaces had   
   minimal bacterial levels, plates exposed to bathroom air for 2   
   min with hand dryers off averaged =1 colony, and plates exposed   
   to bathroom air moved by a small fan for 20 min had averages of   
   15 and 12 colonies/plate in two buildings tested. Retrofitting   
   hand dryers with HEPA filters reduced bacterial deposition by   
   hand dryers ~4-fold, and potential human pathogens were   
   recovered from plates exposed to hand dryer air whether or not a   
   HEPA filter was present and from bathroom air moved by a small   
   fan.   
      
   Spore-forming colonies, identified as B. subtilis PS533,   
   averaged ~2.5 to 5% of bacteria deposited by hand dryers   
   throughout the basic research areas examined regardless of   
   distance from the spore-forming laboratory, and these were   
   almost certainly deposited as spores. Comparable results were   
   obtained when bathroom air was sampled for spores. These results   
   indicate that many kinds of bacteria, including potential   
   pathogens and spores, can be deposited on hands exposed to   
   bathroom hand dryers and that spores could be dispersed   
   throughout buildings and deposited on hands by hand dryers.   
      
   While there is evidence that bathroom hand dryers can disperse   
   bacteria from hands or deposit bacteria on surfaces, including   
   recently washed hands, there is less information on (i) the   
   organisms dispersed by hand dryers, (ii) whether hand dryers   
   provide a reservoir of bacteria or simply blow large amounts of   
   bacterially contaminated air, and (iii) whether bacterial spores   
   are deposited on surfaces by hand dryers.   
      
   Consequently, this study has implications for the control of   
   opportunistic bacterial pathogens and spores in public   
   environments including health care settings. Within a large   
   building, potentially pathogenic bacteria, including bacterial   
   spores, may travel between rooms, and subsequent bacterial/spore   
   deposition by hand dryers is a possible mechanism for spread of   
   infectious bacteria, including spores of potential pathogens if   
   present.   
      
   The following is an excerpt from Wikipedia on the hygenics of   
   hand dryers.   
      
   In 2009 a published study was conducted by the University of   
   Westminster to compare the levels of hygiene offered by paper   
   towels, warm air hand dryers and the more modern jet-air hand   
   dryers. It found that after washing and drying hands with the   
   warm air dryer, the total number of bacteria was found to   
   increase on average on the finger pads by 194% and on the palms   
   by 254%; drying with the jet air dryer resulted in an increase   
   on average of the total number of bacteria on the finger pads by   
   42% and on the palms by 15%; and after washing and drying hands   
   with a paper towel, the total number of bacteria was reduced on   
   average on the finger pads by up to 76% and on the palms by up   
   to 77%.   
      
   The scientists also carried out tests to establish whether there   
   was the potential for cross contamination of other washroom   
   users and the washroom environment as a result of each type of   
   drying method. They found that:   
      
   the jet air dryer, which blows air out of the unit at claimed   
   speeds of 400 mph (˜640 km/h), was capable of blowing micro-   
   organisms from the hands and the unit and potentially   
   contaminating other washroom users and the washroom environment   
   up to 2 metres away use of a warm air hand dryer spread micro-   
   organisms up to 0.25 metres from the dryer paper towels showed   
   no significant spread of micro-organisms.   
      
   In 2005, in a study conducted by TÜV Produkt und Umwelt,   
   different hand drying methods were evaluated.   
      
   Another study found that hot air dryers had the capacity to   
   increase the bacterial count on the skin, and that paper towel   
   drying decreased skin bacterial count. This is corroborated by   
   another study which found that the mechanical action of paper   
   towel drying removed bacteria, something air dryers cannot do.   
      
   Doctors at the University of Ottawa claim that “the blowing of   
   warm air may lead to an accelerated dehydration of the skin   
   surface, thereby affecting the viability” of the microorganisms,   
   and that the warm air may “penetrate all the crevices in the   
   skin, whereas absorbent towels may not reach such areas, even   
   though the skin appears dryer”.   
      
   The European Tissue Symposium, a trade body, has produced a   
   position statement on the hygiene standards of different hand   
   drying systems. This summarises some of the scientific research   
   undertaken.   
      
   Dyson (creators of the Dyson Airblade dryer) have countered the   
   claims presented, suggesting that the results were intentionally   
   falsified.   
      
   https://www.morningticker.com/2018/04/shocking-discovery-about-   
   bathroom-hand-dryers-stuns-scientists/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)