You’re gonna want to air dry your hands from now on. A recent science experiment in a microbiology class led to the revolting revelation that bathroom hand dryers are essentially warming our hands in bacteria. So much for diligently washing your hands to keep from catching the flu!
The class assignment was to bring a petri dish to any location, leave it open for three minutes and then bring it back to the school lab to inspect what gnarlies had grown. One student, a Ms. Nichole Ward, chose to place hers inside a Dyson hand dryer in a women’s bathroom. While every petri dish in the class came back with colonies of bacteria and fungi, let’s just say Ward’s had cultivated an entire new civilization of filth.
“Mine just had so much more mass in the fungal growth,” Ward told the NYTimes.
When she posted a photo of the foul dish on Facebook, it garnered over 560 thousand shares. Talk about going viral.
“Ok guys.. ready to have your mind blown?!” she wrote. “This is the several strains of possible pathogenic fungi and bacteria that you’re swirling around your hands, and you think you’re walking out with clean hands.”
This isn’t the first time science outed Dyson for blowing bacteria all over the place. In 2016, a study found that Dyson’s air hand dryers spread 1300 times the germs as paper towels. (Sorry environmentalists.) In response to Ward’s incident, the company told ABC that it was “very surprised to see these results, and unclear on the methodology employed.”
This is a good time to remind you that you should also throw out your kitchen sponge.
Be well, friends, although let’s face it: The odds are against you.
