Public restrooms: paper towels vs electric hand dryers

[okarol]

I just received this note:
Everyone in the cleaning industry has always been told that hand dryers in restrooms are not sanitary, they spread germs and bacteria around.  I always thought that this just came from the paper companies because they are loosing sales to the hand dryers.  A couple of years ago, I was working with a rep, and I noticed that after he washed his hands and noticed that there were no paper towels, only a hand dryer he left the restroom with wet hands.  I asked him about it.  He said that hand dryers blow a lot of germs and bacteria around.  He also told me to take a look under the hand dryer next time I was in a restroom.  There is a filter underneath the hand dryer that is supposed to be cleaned on a weekly basis.  I looked at one and it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years.  It had layers and layers of caked on gunk (disgusting).  Since then I will not use hand dryers in restrooms.  Now this is where the story gets really interesting.  The schools and universities that have had the H1N1 (swine flue) outbreak this year are being told by the health department that they have to take out all of their hand dryers and replace them with towel dispensers because the hand dryers are spreading disease.  Please pass this along so everyone knows not to use hand dryers.

This seems to support the above statements. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_dryers
Found this but it's from 2000, with no mention of filters or maintenance of the air dryers.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10907386?ordinalpos=2&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
This was interesting too, for home: "Use paper towels for drying hands after hand washing or dedicate cloth towels to each person in the household. For example, have different colored towels for each person." - from http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/guidance_homecare.htm?s_cid=tw_epr_110

[rookiegirl]

Thank you for sharing this story.  Some of the restrooms in my building at work have the hand dryers and I use them.  This changes everything.

[okarol]

Even snopes doesn't have an answer to this yet http://www.snopes.com/medical/swineflu/handblower.asp

[RichardMEL]

I almost never have used hand dryers and have used paper. I didn't know about the clogged up filters and stuff, but it makes sense!! yuck!!!

[st789]

So valuable to know.  Thanks okarol.

[Pam]

Even if the restroom has electric dryers I used paper towels. You need something to cover the nasty door handles. Not every one washes their hands before they leave.
Pam

[pelagia]

Might be, but apparently the study was supported by a grant from the paper tissue industry.

http://www.torkusa.com/Pages/News/News.aspx?id=155321

[kristina]

Thanks for the information.
I always use paper towels to dry my hands,
I also use a paper towel to cover the door handles, just like Pam.

[cloud393]

Eeeeeeewwwww!!!!!!!!!  No more electric dryers for me.  Thanks for the info.

[iketchum]

Front load clothes washers are also a mold and mildew problem. You have to clean the gaskets on them every time you use it or mold and midew will grow in the machine. Just saw this on the news.