How hygienic are hand dryers?

It’s one of the most nerve-wracking aspects about using a public restroom: the almost undeniable presence of germs, bacteria, and a host of things that you are quite afraid to touch or even walk past. Public restrooms are generally not the epitome of sanitation, but the anxiety that comes from their use can be eased significantly if there is a hand dryer in place of the traditional paper towel dispenser.

Minimal Contact

Consider that when using a public restroom, you can wash your hands for a few minutes and feel that you’ve avoided catastrophe — only to be subjected to a paper towel dispenser and the inevitable millions of germs residing on its handle. A hand dryer offers you the ability to wash your hands and dry them without having to touch anything at all. Simply wave your hands underneath the hand dryer and you’re treated to high-powered, warm air and a totally germ-free, worry-free thirty seconds of drying. This alleviates the delicate dance people do around the paper towel dispenser — trying their best to use their elbows, upper arms, or even shoulders to nudge the paper towels down and keep their hands away from enemy.

Modern Technology

Hand Dryers have been around for some time and, like most things in modern life, they started out pretty basic. The average hand dryer certainly spared people the horror of germ-ridden paper towel dispensers, but it still required pushing a button turn on the device. And, once the device was on, it could take up to a minute for it to completely dry a person’s hands.

Luckily, as technology has marched steadily onward, so have hand dryers. The newest, most advanced models on the market are now capable of dispensing hot air at a whopping 400 miles per hour, drying hands in just twelve seconds. Gone are the days of the manual push-button hand dryer, replaced instead by motion activated models that simply require you to wave your hands underneath the device to initiate that 400 mile per hour drying action. This is part of the latest trend in public restrooms, where everything is motion-sensitive and requires minimal (if any) contact with unsanitary surfaces.

Environmental Impact

As an added bonus to the increased hygiene that comes from using a hand dryer, it’s also worth noting that their use is a far more “green” option than paper towels. Most people in public restrooms are apt to dispensing far more paper towels than they require. This places an obvious burden on the environment, sacrificing trees for a little temporary sanitation. Hand dryers in recent years have become highly energy-efficient despite their increased power. This modern technology saves on the excess waste from paper towels, not only in the form of resource-straining paper towel production, but also on the large amounts of material waste that public restrooms produce in the absence of hand dryers.

There really isn’t a more hygienic way to use a public restroom than an automatic hand dryer. With the absence of bacteria-infested paper towel dispensers, in combination with motion-activated technology, peace of mind can finally be achieved in one of modern man’s most infected public spaces.

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