After using a bathroom it is common practice to wash and dry our hands before leaving. We genuinely do this as we believe it is part of our hygiene and we are leaving the washroom with cleaner hands.
What we do not know or understand …
Through drying our hands with warm bathroom hand dryers or jet dryer we are actually contaminating our hands more so than before we used the soap to wash our hands. In general most public washrooms do not offer the option of hand paper towels and we are using these jet dryers to dry our hands before leaving – being the only option that is available.
However, research from Dr. Patrick Kimmitt and Keith Redway of the University of Westminster, have concluded that single-use towels offer the most hygienic way to reduce the risk of the transmission of viruses when drying hands in the washroom.
“Good hand hygiene can save lives.” explains Keith Redway. “Minimising infection risk by ensuring proper hand hygiene, includes understanding what may compromise that. Our research and results over the years have revealed time and again that single-use towels are the safest way to dry one’s hands in the washroom. This virus study delivers further proof that when it comes to hygiene, drying one’s hands with a single-use paper towel is the safest way to reduce the spread of viruses after a visit to the washroom.”
FACTS Comparing Bathroom Hand Dryers and Paper Towels …
– The user of a jet air dryer is likely to be exposed to over 1000 times more micro-organisms than the user of a paper towel dispenser.
– Jet air dryers produce over 60 times more viral plaques than warm air dryer paper and over 1,300 times more than paper towels.
(Viral Plague: A visible structure formed within a cell culture, such as bacterial cultures within some nutrient medium. The bacteriophage viruses replicate and spread, thus generating regions of cell destructions know as plaques. Counting the number of plaques can be used as a method of virus quantification.)
This means that the choice of hand-drying devices should be carefully considered before installation in areas where infection prevention concerns are paramount. These areas could include; healthcare settings and the food industry.
Some facts….
– Hand hygiene is considered to be an integral component of the practice of infection control both in the home and community and healthcare settings.
–It has been estimated that cross-infection contributes to 40% of cases of healthcare-associated infections and hand hygiene compliance represents an essential step in minimizing such infections.
– Hands that are inadequately dried are more likely to transmit micro-organisms when compared to those which have been completely dried.
– Paper towel produce less dispersal from the hands into the surrounding environment then jet air dryers
In conclusion the best option is to only use Paper Towels when drying your hands. Alternatively if this is not a possible option, carry a small Purell Hand Sanitiser Gel with you and leave without washing your hands rather use 1ml of the Purell.
Email sales@virtueplus.com.au to find out how you can reduce the risk of transmitting viruses. In view of helping companies who want to make the switch we would love to offer Free Paper Dispensers and Installation. Call 1300 255 546
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