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A new study in Applied and Environmental Microbiology (Sci-Hub mirror) conducted microbial surveys of the bathrooms at the University of Connecticut (where the study's lead authors are based) to investigate whether hand-dryers were sucking in potentially infectious microbes and then spraying them all over everything, as had been observed in earlier studies.
They were.
The full cycle goes like this: when you flush a toilet that doesn't have a lid, the turbulence of the flush sends fecal particles into the air, where they hover in a miasmic cloud; when the dryers switch on, they pull these particles in through their intake, heat them up, and spray them onto your moist hands and other moist, hospitable surfaces where their bacteria can thrive.
HEPA filters greatly reduce this mechanism.
The new study specifically focuses on lower-powered hand-dryers, which some people had believed were less prone to sucking in tiny pieces of shit and spraying them on you
Read more here. (Boing Boing)
They were.
The full cycle goes like this: when you flush a toilet that doesn't have a lid, the turbulence of the flush sends fecal particles into the air, where they hover in a miasmic cloud; when the dryers switch on, they pull these particles in through their intake, heat them up, and spray them onto your moist hands and other moist, hospitable surfaces where their bacteria can thrive.
HEPA filters greatly reduce this mechanism.
The new study specifically focuses on lower-powered hand-dryers, which some people had believed were less prone to sucking in tiny pieces of shit and spraying them on you
Read more here. (Boing Boing)