Like Dogs vs Cats, United vs City, or Coke vs Pepsi, there has been a long and bitter rivalry that has split people for as long as anyone can remember. There have been reports, experiments, and everything else and no conclusion on whether paper towels or hand dryers are better.
Hell’s Decibels
The debate surrounding paper towels and hand dryers is usually around whether hand dryers or paper towels are more hygienic. But there is more to it than that.
There has never been a noise debate for obvious reasons. There are of course low noise hand dryers but they are often less effective at drying than other types of hand dryers. In Japan, the washrooms will often have music playing to drown out the hand dryer noise, as well as other noises that occur within.
How Much Wood Could A Woodchuck Chuck If A Woodchuck Could Chuck Paper Towels In The Bin?
The environment is another factor that influences people’s purchasing decisions nowadays. When it comes to paper towels vs hand dryers, it is hand dryers that are better for the environment. The reasoning is simple.
Hand dryers use electricity, which thanks to modern technology, can allow Germany to run on just 15% nuclear and coal power to generate electricity. It’s not inconceivable that hand dryers will be powered entirely by environmentally friendly electricity sources, like wind turbines, in the future.
Paper towels will never be environmentally friendly and businesses often overlook the amount of paper it uses, and forget to think about the impact it has on the environment.
War of The Words
There has been many experiments and reports to determine whether paper towels or hand dryers are more hygienic. The biggest criticism lodged against hand dryers is that the air blown out disperses more germs in to the room than using paper towels.
A report published by the Journal of Applied Microbiology found that jet air hand dryers, such as the Dyson Airblade V, Mediclinics Dualflow, and the Bower Magnum Hyper-Dri disperse around 60 times more bacteria into the atmosphere than warm air hand dryers. As well as 1300 times more bacteria than paper towels.
A European Tissue Symposium infographic
Dyson’s Toby Saville disputes the report by pointing out that during testing, gloves were worn which makes it easier to blow off bacteria. Saville said to The Verge that the report was “fundamentally flawed” and “You’d be disappointed if an undergraduate had made some of these errors.”
Another point highlighted by Saville is that one of the authors of the report, Keith Redway, has received funding from the European Tissue Symposium, for “microbiological advice and travel expenses to attend meetings and conferences” according to the Journal of Applied Microbiology report.
The European Tissue Symposium is an organisation that promotes the use of paper towels over hand dryers. The organisation represents around 90% of the total paper tissue production in Europe, according to its website.
To Conclude…
Ultimately, every party that has an interest in either side will promote it to be better than the other. They both have pros and cons and they have to be weighed up for your organisation. It will vary and there’s no single correct answer.
What is correct is that drying your hands isn’t the most important aspect of hand hygiene. To get the cleanest hands and reduce the spread of germs and bacteria than washing your hands thoroughly is vital. Getting the right soap dispenser and soap plays a huge factor in this.
While you’re here, you might also want to check out our Eco Hand Dryers and Hand Dryers vs. Paper Towels: The Modern Result blogs.
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