Germ Warfare

Scott Hardie | June 25, 2014
WSJ finally speaks honestly about the partisan divide that is tearing our country apart: Paper towels vs electric hand dryers.

Which do you prefer?

Erik Bates | June 26, 2014
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | June 26, 2014
Yes! The airblade works really well. My main problem with electric hand dryers is that they fail to dry my hands, even when I rub them over and over beneath the vent. Airblades do the job.

I'm considered a bit of a germophobe among people I know*, and yet, until this article, I had not considered the possibility that electric hand dryers would spray germs all over my hands. That sounds more than a little crazy, and yet up to 75% of Americans (the number that prefers paper towels) may believe it. How would germs get on or in the machine? Just being airborne in the bathroom? That sounds unlikely, especially since they would have to float upwards into the vents.

Similarly, people fear germs on the door handle in a public bathroom, but it's benign. The Straight Dope once interviewed an environmental microbiologist about this and came up with some useful knowledge about ordinary germs around us. We're not afraid of the things that we should be (laundry machines, kitchen sponges), and we are afraid of the things that we shouldn't be (toilet seats, bathroom door handles). I'm curious to know about keyboards and mice.

*The people I know who consider me a germophobe are the same people who will eat food that fell briefly on the floor and go to the bathroom without washing their hands. I consider these people nuts. Then again, I won't kiss Kelly when she has a cold, so maybe I do take it too far.