If you're in the middle of eating something, put it down before reading any further. Trust me. At some point we have all used a public restroom and probably will again in the future. For many of us, washing your hands after using the facility seems like a no brainier, but a new study, published by author Peter Setlow of  Applied and Environmental Microbiology , shared some news that may make you think twice before drying those freshly washed hands! It turns out that using blow dryers could actually be doing a lot more harm then good.

The study claims that air being blasted out from hand dryers contains far more bacteria than normal bathroom air. Yup, you heard right, what we thought was a safer "healthier" option to drying hands turns out to be worse then using paper towels. The study, after examining 36 bathrooms machines after a single use, shared this horrifying fact:

"As many as 60 different bacterial colonies can be blown out of the machines in just one 30-second drying."

But wait, it gets better! Can you guess what kind of bacteria was found? Setlow later had this to say:

“Bacteria in bathrooms will come from feces, which can be aerosolized a bit when toilets, especially lidless toilets, are flushed,”

I don't know about you, but I think from now on I'll carry some napkins in my pockets just to be safe!

 

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