People are disgusted by a viral TikTok going around that brought up a study showing the amount of bacteria hand dryers spread.

A TikTok was recently posted of a person dipping their hair into a hand dryer to which the TikTok account @madmedicine responded, talking about how disgusting the hand dryers actually are.

A Harvard study from 2018, conducted with the University of Connecticut and Quinnipiac University, revealed that hand dryers are actually significantly dirtier than towels and spread fecal matter that is dispersed around bathrooms by lidless toilets flushing. That fecal matter along with other forms of bacteria is then shot directly onto your hands and all around the bathroom when activated.

This was explained by @madmedicine when they caught wind of the viral hair drying trend on TikTok.

@madmedicine

#stitch with @kiingliima ew. #hairdryer #dysonairwrap #dysonhair #hairfacts #humanbody #tiktokdoctor #medicalfacts #handdryer #LaysGoldenDuet

♬ original sound – Dr. Farhan

Twitter was also quick to pick this up, and many people took to the comments to share how disgusted they were.

In one video, someone took samples from multiple sources, albeit their controls were anything but controlled, and shared their findings in a video.

“And this is EXACTLY why I don’t use hand dryers. You’re welcome.”

One Twitter microbiologist pointed out some of the faults in the experiment, although this didn’t necessarily disprove the experiment’s assertions.

“Microbiologist here. Fake news 1: the blower is just forcing the bathroom air 2: the “control” plate turns out clean because it is only being waved around for a few seconds, not getting the same amount of exposure as the blower plate 3: the exposure plate isn’t that dirty anyway”

“The hand drier is literally blowing the same room air at a much higher rate, so the only way to get an effective control would be to let that air plate sit open for around 30 minutes. Everything has bacteria on / in it. Tap water, air, etc.”

“The surfaces inside those dryers don’t get cleaned typically, so they do build up higher levels of bacteria, viruses, molds, etc. Even the intake vents don’t typically get cleaned even tho no disassembly is required. So it’s like an air “purifier” with a dirty filter.”

“I was thinking that. It’s not just recycled bathroom air being expelled. It’s bathroom air in addition to any microbes and biofilms that may have grown inside and on the surfaces of the inside of the machine. The agar plate literally reveals it’s much more contaminated.”

“I agree w/ the point about exposure times (ie, sample size / volume of air / # particles each plate is exposed to), but yeah a lot of “stuff” can get stuck/grow inside those dryers, too. Regardless, blowing a large volume of bathroom air onto clean hands isn’t optimal.”

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