Marcus Houlden wrote:
On Fri, 25 Aug 2006 00:22:19 +0200, John of Aix
wrote the following to uk.misc:

Sam Nelson wrote:
In article ,
Adam Funk writes:
-- Another researcher, comparing bacterial residue on hands
-- after drying with the warm air device, paper towels or a
-- continuous cotton towel, found that the towels were
-- significantly better in removing micro-organisms. While the
-- electric devices increased bacteria on the hands by 162
-- percent, paper towels decreased bacteria levels by 29
-- percent.

Your hands can, presumably, never be cleaner than the water with
which you rinse them.

Not really true and no doubt the reason for hand dryers*. Water, even
'clean' cotains and is a good host for many bacteria. The object
therefore of such a dryer is to eliminate the host, the water and, I
suppose, supply sufficient heat to kill any nasties that remain. While
personal I'd rather have (paper) towels any time, logically I think that
if you're a hygiene nut, then a dryer is probably better.

A few options that these surveys never seem to consider is what happens if:

1. You don't wash your hands at all

2. You rinse them without soap

3. You wash (or rinse) them, use neither paper towel nor dryer, and let them
dry naturally



You have overlooked the most effective cleaner of all -
mother's spit rubbed in and then rubbed off with a handkerchief.

This worked for generations of children until all these arty farty
things were introduced.