Life is full of challenging choices, and public toilets are no exception. Paper towel? Hand dryer? Or god forbid the germ-ridden fabric hand towel?! Hopefully you rule out option three pretty quick, which leaves two choices: the environmentally friendly hand dryer or the not-so-environmentally-friendly paper towel.
Unless it’s one of those jet blasting numbers, then you’ll probably have to wipe your hands on your shirt anyway. But, given the luxury of choice most of us lean towards the hand dryer. Well, maybe not after you see Nichole Ward’s Facebook post revealing the germs that’s lurking in them.
After Nichole put a Petri dish in a Dyson Airblade she ‘incubated’ it for 48 hours only to find the Petri dish swarming with all sorts of nasties.
“This here, is what grew in a Petri dish after just a few days,” Nichole wrote. “I stuck the open plate in an enclosed hand dryer of a public bathroom for a total of three minutes. Yes, three only. DO NOT EVER dry your hands in those things again. This is the several strains of pathogenic fungi and bacteria that you’re swirling around your hands, and you think you’re walking out with clean hands. You’re welcome.”
Nichole’s post sparked a bit of a furor and has already been shared more than 530,000 times, with comments such as: “Yuck!!! Thank you for sharing!”
Before you panic and vow to never use a hand dryer again, it’s likely that if you’re not getting sick or experiencing unusual symptoms, the hand dryer is having no effect. The legitimacy of Nichole’s experiment and her scientific credentials are also unclear.
“We’re very surprised to see these results, and unclear on the methodology employed,” a Dyson spokesperson told Metro.co.uk.
“All Dyson AirbladeTM hand dryers have HEPA filters that capture particles as small as bacteria from the washroom air before it leaves the machine.”
“Dyson AirbladeTM hand dryers are proven hygienic by university research and are trusted by hospitals, food manufacturers and businesses worldwide.”
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