Dyson Airblades 'Spread Germs 1,300 Times More Than Paper Towels' (telegraph.co.uk)

An anonymous reader writes: The Journal of Applied Microbiology published a report claiming Dyson Airblade hand-driers spread 60 times more germs than standard air dryers, and 1,300 times more than standard paper towels. The researchers from University of Westminster conducted their research by dipping their hands in water containing a harmless virus. Then, they dried their hands with either a Dyson Airblade, a standard hot-air dryer, or a paper towel. Their research shows the Dyson drier's 430mph blasts of air are capable of spreading viruses up to 3 meters across a bathroom. Typical driers spread viruses up to 75cm (about 2.5ft), and the hand towels 25cm (less than 1ft).

Comments

Virus-laden water

[Anonymous Coward]

Shouldn't the premise for testing hand dryers be that the hands are washed with soap and are "clean" but wet? If we taint the water itself and measure how far that spreads, is that really a realistic test of how hygienic the dryer is?

Re:Virus-laden water

[LostMyBeaver]

Having measured soap consumption during stadium events for the purpose of planning logistics for the next event, we learned that the ladies bathroom used on average 72 times the soap per person than the men's bathroom. This is not an exaggeration and is based on statistics gathered across 10 events held over 10 years with 5500 attendees over a period of 5 days per event.

We tried to explain the discrepancy without simply saying "guys are pigs" and the best we came up with was that we believe that women on average used the bathrooms over this time twice as often as guys... though unless we started scanning people entering and exiting, we can't be 100% sure about the accuracy of that.

The end result is, no matter how we twist it, the average woman consumes 36 times as much soap in the bathroom than a man.

As such... I wouldn't worry about the hand dryers in the ladies bathroom, but I would in the men's.

So... then consider, men are terrible at washing their hands. They shake your hand, touch the door knobs, use your tools, etc... They will spread it EVERYWHERE!!!

The obvious follow up is that it really doesn't make a difference and since American germiphobia is famous worldwide for Americans' terrible immune systems, maybe it's more important whether a hand dryer dries your hands than whether it spreads germs. European doctors sit in groups laughing about how American doctors can't travel to seminars because their immune systems are so damaged by anti-bacterial soaps that they spend the whole week sick in the hotel rooms.

Re: Yes, but it's a Dyson

[chaboud]

Listen Donald, not all of us were graced with dainty hobbit hands.

    Having also touched the interior of one of these crufty shit slingers (that crack in the bottom always fills with a brown sludge), I'll be happy to see them sued out of existence for false advertisement.

Dyson airblades have ALWAYS been awful

[AbRASiON]

I first encountered these idiot things in my first overseas trip to London and Paris back in 2010 at many shopping centres and airports.

The stupid goddamn things have a very small slit to put your hands in, where the air is coming rapidly on to your hands in a very tight line / wave of air.
The problem is in the design that you put your hands inside this small gap and it's really bloody easy for your palms or back of your hand or your shirt to easily touch the top or bottom of the opening.
https://www.thememo.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/dyson-airblade.jpg
It's simply too small a space to put your hands. Sure if you're careful you're fine but it reminded me of playing the old electronic board game 'operation' trying to not touch the sides.

I realise Mythbusters seemed to confirm that an air dryer IS worse than paper towel for germs, but I still prefer a combination of both (towel then dryer) but I'd take a regular hand dryer any day over the Dyson, stupid bloody thing.

Re: On the other hand...

[Solandri]

I always wondered why bathroom doors open inward. Shouldn't they open outward? You pull open the door with your dirty hands as you enter, do your business and wash up, and as you exit you can push open the door with your foot to avoid touching anything touched by people who didn't wash up.

Re:Yes, but it's a Dyson

[Xest]

I've always found them shit anyway. The airblade doesn't make sense, as it seems to blow horizontally, creating an air wall that basically pushes any water on your hand either side of the air wall, and as you move up and down, moves the water up and down.

To me, what would've always made more sense would've been to:

a) Have the air aim downwards to push the water down off your hands

b) Move your hands into position from the side, rather than above

Moving hands in from above just pushes the water up your arm, moving your hands in from the side and blowing down would push it off your hand.

So yes, right now all they really are is germ cannons that don't actually dry your hands particularly effectively - in fact, I find a good classic powerful (some are shit and too weak) hand dryer to be much better because at least they blast downwards, which because we live in a world with gravity, is kind of more fucking useful than creating a wall that just pushes water up your arm.

But one of the biggest sanitation problems for germ transfer in toilets is door handles. Rather than buying an expensive airblade, maybe places should invest in doors that open automatically with sensors because right now everyone washes their hands and dries them with an expensive no-touch hand dryer like the dyson, and then proceeds to put their hand on the door handle to exit the washrooms only to pick up all the germs that that one scratty bastard who doesn't wash his hands after handling his dick left there.