Restroom hand dryers spew fecal matter onto our hands

You probably do some of these things every day, but have you really thought about how gross they are? You probably do some of these things every day, but have you really thought about how gross they are? Photo: Radius Images, Getty Images Photo: Radius Images, Getty Images Image 1 of / 33 Caption Close Restroom hand dryers spew fecal matter onto our hands 1 / 33 Back to Gallery

While washing your hands after using the restroom is always recommended hygiene, a recent study might have you thinking twice about using a hand dryer afterward.

University of Connecticut researchers have found that hand dryers suck in bacteria from the air in the bathrooms and then spit it back out onto your hands. And when we say bacteria, we mean fecal matter from the toilet.

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"Bacteria in bathrooms will come from feces, which can be aerosolized a bit when toilets, especially lidless toilets, are flushed," study author Peter Setlow told Newsweek.

In the study that was published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, "hot-air hand dryers in multiple men's and women's bathrooms in three basic science research areas in an academic health center were screened for their deposition on plates of total bacteria," and what the researchers found was that "plates exposed to hand dryer air for 30 s averaged 18 to 60 colonies/plate."

As a possible preventative measure, scientists applied HEPA filters which they found "reduced bacterial deposition by hand dryers 4-fold" but still "potential human pathogens were recovered from plates exposed to hand dryer air whether or not a HEPA filter was present and from bathroom air moved by a small fan."

The University of Connecticut has added paper towels to all 36 of the bathrooms used in the study.