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First invented by George Clemens in1948, hand dryers are now widely avail-able in many public restrooms and toutedas the environmentally friendly alternativeto paper towels.

Because of the expense of making paperand the waste and labor involved in itsmaintenance and disposal, hand dryersseem like a logical choice for increasinglygreen-conscious (and frugal) facility ownersand managers.

However, many people have reportedpoor experiences with hand dryers, as a re-sult, even the facilities that do provide handdryers may also supply paper towels to pre-vent irritating their patrons. Hand dryershave a mixed reputation in the industry, anddeservedly so.

In some of the myths addressed in this ar-ticle, there is also an element of truth; othermyths are based on heavily biased, outdatedand/or flawed information that received a

great deal more attention than deserved.

Myth 1: Hand Dryers are Not Sanitary

The only existing study to make thisclaim comes from the University of West-minster in England. In 1993, K. Redway etal produced a study and two unpublished re-ports funded by the Association of Makersof Soft Tissue Papers. The study concludedthat hand dryers dramatically increased bac-teria counts. The study was widely distrib-uted in the media but was not published norrecognized by any medical or health review.

This single study’s suggestion thathand dryers blow germs onto your just-cleaned hands was enough to generate aneasy sound bite that still comes up occa-sionally in the media. However, researchindicates that this claim only amounts to ascare tactic favored by the paper indus-try, and not an actual, significant health

threat posed by hand dryer use. First of all, the Westminster report has

been criticized: In the 1994 paper entitled“Bacteria on Washed and Dried Hands: ACritical Review of two Unpublished Reportsfrom the University of Westminster,” Dr.Syed Saatar from the University of Ottawareports that “certain flaws in the methodol-ogy ... compromise its value.”

As for the myth that hand dryers harborbacteria and subsequently blow microbesonto users’ skin, this is nearly impossible:the interior of a hand dryer is dry, and con-stantly heated, creating a very poor environ-ment for the propagation of microorganisms.In fact, according to the 1990 study byAnsari et al, the interior of a dryer has bac-teria counts two to four times LOWER thanother surfaces in the bathroom, such assinks, doorknobs and soap dispensers.

Hand dryers leave no refuse behind, andhands-free models alleviate the need to

BY DENNIS GAGNON

DebunkedFive Myths about Hand Dryers

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touch any surfaces at all in order to dryhands. Facility owners seeking to maximizehygiene in their restroom facilities shouldinstall as many hands-free fixtures as pos-sible. In addition to hand dryers, auto-flush toilets, automatic faucets and soapdispensers are all readily available. Theadded benefits are improved hygiene, lessoverall product waste and significant costsavings.

Myth 2: Hand Dryers Don’t Dry Hands Effectively

Older generations of hand dryers havecontributed to the poor reputation that chal-lenges the industry today. Simply put, handdryers don’t do what they’re supposed to:Dry hands in a reasonable amount of time.

The ineffectiveness of typical hand dryerslies in the flawed design of most early mod-els, and those flaws continue in many exist-ing dryers today. The idea was that a warm,steady stream of air would evaporate the wa-ter on hands, much as a hair dryer dries hair.Unfortunately, the time factor was not givenadequate consideration. Most people in apublic restroom are not patient enough tospend the time required for complete waterevaporation to take place. Additionally,many patrons do not rub their hands vigor-ously below the dryers, which brush awayexcess water droplets.

When my company set out to improvethe hand dryer, we collaborated with a re-search and development group to find outwhere most dryers went wrong. We learnedthat water clings to skin in two ways: as athin film against the skin, and as loosedroplets.

Naturally, the thin film is easier to evap-orate than the larger droplets, but most dry-ers have to get through those large dropsfirst, leaving the water film behind. Peoplewho took the time to shake loose thedroplets, and who rubbed their hands vig-orously below the dryer, tended to get bet-ter results than those who did not, so wefactored that in as well.

We developed a more focused, stream-lined nozzle that would direct high-velocityair at the hands, blowing away the loosedroplets and breaking up the layer of watervapor between the air and the skin, allow-ing it to evaporate more rapidly. The resultwas a hand dryer that did its job in a veryshort amount of time: between 10 and 15seconds at most.

Myth 3: Hand Dryers are MoreExpensive Than Paper Towels

Certainly, any model of hand dryer is go-

ing to cost more than a package of papertowels, and probably more than the toweldispenser they are loaded into. However, theup-front cost is deceptive. Hand dryers are aone-time purchase: once installed, they re-quire considerably less attention than papertowel dispensers. And unlike paper, whichcan cost $15-$30 or more per case, the en-ergy costs of using a hand dryer amount topennies per day.

Hand dryers cost much less overall, par-ticularly when you consider the costs of la-bor. Quality hand dryers are virtuallymaintenance-free, except for a recom-mended annual cleaning. Paper towels, bycomparison, require one hour of mainte-nance for each case of towels used. Papertowels must be replaced frequently, andpicked up, damp, from floors and other sur-faces to be disposed of properly. Towelsare more subject to vandalism by mischie-vous users of public restrooms. Finally,hand dryers are virtually always availablefor use, while paper towel dispensers arefrequently empty, jammed or otherwisenon-functioning.

Myth 4: Paper Towels are Betterfor the Environment Than HandDryers

Although paper towels do not consumeelectricity in their use, they consume a greatdeal of energy to be fabricated in the firstplace. According to the Environmental Pro-tection Agency, every single ton of paper pro-duced consumes many more thousands ofgallons of water and tons of oil (not to men-tion the two to four tons of trees used to yieldthat single ton of finished paper).

Paper trash comprises approximately40 percent of our municipal waste in con-servative estimates. Even recycled paperproducts require a significant energy costin their production. And there are also thewell-documented environmental costs ofpaper fabrication: deforestation, pollutionand contaminated sediments in nearbysources of water, air pollution from pulpand paper mills (including carbon dioxide,nitrous oxides, sulfur dioxides, carbonmonoxides and particulates), and solidwaste production.

In other words, though paper towels maynot plug into an electrical source them-selves in order to work, they consume agreat deal of electricity and natural re-sources during production, and leave agreat deal of waste behind. Cutting backon paper waste is an imperative for any or-ganization hoping to become more envi-ronmentally sound and it is one of the

major selling points for the use of handdryers as a source reduction alternative.

As for electricity costs to the facilityowner, hand dryers that work efficiently(i.e., that dry hands in a shorter amount of timethan older models) do not draw an exorbitantamount of electricity at all. To assure this,you’ll want a model that requires less overalloperating time to dry hands effectively. Forexample, new model hand dryer run on 15amp service and uses 80 percent less energythan other models. Hands-free dryers with mo-tion sensors cannot be “overused” by patrons,so waste is effectively minimized.

Myth 5: Hand Dryers are Difficultto Install and Maintain

This of course varies from model tomodel, vendor to vendor, but overall, handdryers that are properly built should in-stall quite easily and operate virtuallymaintenance-free, unlike paper towel dis-pensers. Some older hand dryer modelswere designed to be recessed into thebathroom wall, requiring a significantamount of labor to install. Many modernmodels are instead surface-mounted andcan be installed at various designatedheights quite easily.

Quality dryer models do not require muchmechanical attention or repair to work prop-erly. John Donahue, the Building superin-tendent at the Massachusetts ConventionCenter Authority, is in charge of the re-stroom maintenance of the Hynes Conven-tion Center, among other facilities withinthe MCCA. The Hynes Center has gradu-ally phased out older models of hand dryersand replaced them entirely with the hand dry-ers, and Donahue has praised their lastingpower and function: “To date, none of theunits have failed, and they get a lot of use,”Donahue says. As long as you choose a ven-dor with good customer service, installingand maintaining dryers should not presentmuch of a problem.

The myths simply don’t hold up: handdryers save more money and are more en-vironmentally sound than paper towels.With the improvements made to the tech-nology, hand dryers are no longer as cum-bersome and ineffective as popularlythought. The more people encounter effi-cient models, the faster the tune of popularwisdom and opinion changes. q

Denis Gagnon is president of ExcelDryer, Inc. and the inventor of XLERA-TOR, the fast energy efficient hand dryer.For more information about XLERA-TOR, visit the company’s Web site atwww.exceldryer.com.