If you have gotten sick this year, you know how rough the flu is this season. People are taking extra care to wash their hands in order to stop the spread of germs, and that is great. But while you are paying attention to washing your hands, you may not be paying much attention to how you dry them, and that could make a difference.
According to a 2016 study published in The Journal of Applied Microbiology, high-powered hand dryers spread 1,300 times as many germs as paper towels, and standard hand dryers spread 60 times as many as a paper towel. One student set out to determine if this was true, and stuck a petri dish inside a hand dryer in a public bathroom for three minutes (that's all) and this is what she found.
Yep. All of those germs were swirling around inside. So next time you go to a public rest room, think twice about drying your hands with those automatic dryers. Maybe your pants are a safer bet?