Hand Drier -vs- Paper Towels

Tork_UK

Hi Guys. I haven't seen an introductory thread so let me start by saying hello as i am new here. I’m James and I work on behalf of Tork UK. I've been a reading treads on here for some time, so I thought it was about time that I joined up and got stuck in.

There are alot of interesting comments within this thread and as someone who works within this industry I thought i can add some value. Firstly from a hygiene perspective. A University of Westminster study in 2008 looked at this very discussion. Both traditional warm air dryers and the new-style jet-air dryers were also found to increase the amount of bacteria on the hands after drying. After using the warm air dryer, bacteria levels increased by an average of 194 percent on the finger pads and 254 percent on the palms.

Drying with the jet air dryer resulted in an average bacteria increase of 42 percent on the finger pads and 15 percent on the palms. The study revealed a different story when it came to paper towels, however, which were found to reduce bacteria levels by an average of 76 percent on the finger pads and 77 percent on the palms.

With regards to the environment, most paper towel systems deliver just one towel at a time reducing wastage and over consumption. Leading paper towel brands use responsibly-sourced fibre including recycled paper. Once used, paper towels can be recycled up to 5 times or used for energy reclamation.. I hope that wasn't too much information all at once :-)

coffeelover23

Thank you Tork :rolleyes: for the input

I prefer just to air-dry my hands. it's the best solution.

I usually open the door with my foot though, so the thing that really gets me is the "pull as you leave" style doors. what a pain :mad:

Tork_UK

No Problem Coffeelover, glad to help.

Obviously what you choose to do with regards to drying your hands is your own prerogative but let me tell you that leaving those damp hands will spread up to 1,000 times as many germs as dry hands. To keep them safe it is therefore as important to dry your hands as it is to wash them.

If only there were a solution for toilets with the "pull as you leave" style doors... :rolleyes:

Viper_7

orc wrote: »

Not entirely convinced of this, as paper towels need to be taken from dispenser (contact and potential for germs) and then disposed of in a bin- potential for germs again depending on cleaning regime.

I can see where you are coming from re recycled towels but just consider all the carbon expended in getting the towels to point of use.

If an energy efficient drier was used, eg Dyson, it uses less electricity and the electricity could be sourced through a green tariff.

Neither.
Not washing your hands is better and cleaner - unless you have a habit of peeing on your hands.
To wash your hands you have to touch the taps - the taps that have been touched by many hundreds of people before you...after washing...you touch them again.
so rather than having just a few potential germs on you, you carry hundreds about from different people.

foogirl1983

But I suppose our immune systems would struggle to cope with anything if we didn't expose them to other germs/bacteria?

If you're that bothered, then campaign for alcohol rub in the cubicles!

orc_2

Viper_7 wrote: »

Neither.
Not washing your hands is better and cleaner - unless you have a habit of peeing on your hands.-

Not washing- why do you say that? Surely that runs against what we are told.

To wash your hands you have to touch the taps - the taps that have been touched by many hundreds of people before you...after washing...you touch them again.

Yep, can see what you mean.


so rather than having just a few potential germs on you, you carry hundreds about from different people.

Yep, again.

Thanks, interesting views! Thanks for contribution!!!!

Viper_7

Just to add regarding your thinking office earlier.
Forgetting about our hands - have a think about what happens when you flush!
Put it this way - always flush with the seat lid down, but even then bacteria is spread quite some distance!
Recall a video which could view bacteria/germs and coloured them for ease of view and it monitored a bathroom for an hour..... It was all over the loo, all up the walls, all over the sink .
As someone said, think we do get hung up too much on the humble bacteria and being too clean.

Can't find the actual vid i'm thinking of but here is something similar but this one plays it down a little - if the facilities are kept to a half decent standard

http://health.discovery.com/videos/dr-know-how-dirty-are-bathrooms.html

mega_mummy

Viper_7 wrote: »

Neither.
Not washing your hands is better and cleaner - unless you have a habit of peeing on your hands.
To wash your hands you have to touch the taps - the taps that have been touched by many hundreds of people before you...after washing...you touch them again.
so rather than having just a few potential germs on you, you carry hundreds about from different people.

I share this view actually...

And yes yes yes to the person who mentioned about the doors needing to be pulled from the inside- I was just pondering that while in Asda the other day

orc_2

Viper_7 wrote: »

Just to add regarding your thinking office earlier.
Forgetting about our hands - have a think about what happens when you flush!
Put it this way - always flush with the seat lid down, but even then bacteria is spread quite some distance!
Recall a video which could view bacteria/germs and coloured them for ease of view and it monitored a bathroom for an hour..... It was all over the loo, all up the walls, all over the sink .
As someone said, think we do get hung up too much on the humble bacteria and being too clean.

Can't find the actual vid i'm thinking of but here is something similar but this one plays it down a little - if the facilities are kept to a half decent standard

http://health.discovery.com/videos/dr-know-how-dirty-are-bathrooms.html

Very interesting- thanks. You have a convert.