Using a hand dryer in a public bathroom is the grossest thing ever

Nah.

If you've ever used a public bathroom, you've probably used a hand dryer. You know, they're the little boxes near the sink that you use to dry your hands when you've washed them after going to the toilet. They make a loud noise and some of them are very intense (Dyson, we're looking at you). People use hand dryers for a plethora of reasons too - one of them might be because they enjoy the feeling of hot air on their wet hands. Another might be because they don't want to use toilet roll to dry themselves because that's disgusting. As it turns out though, using a hand dryer might actually be far more disgusting... according to new research anyway. Here's why. A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut showed that hand dryers expel a lot of harmful bacteria back onto your hands. And some of that bacteria is human waste. Yeah. Grim. Researchers analysed hand dryers from male and female bathrooms in three separate areas. They used plates to collect the bacteria that was expelled from the dryers when switched on, finding that sometimes up to 60 colonies of bacteria were discovered. Lovely. When the plates were simply left in the bathroom for a while, they only collected max 20 colonies. Not only is this mildly disgusting, but it can also pose a potential health risk for whoever's using the dryer. The study concluded:

“These results indicate that many kinds of bacteria, including potential pathogens and spores, can be deposited on hands exposed to bathroom hand dryers and that spores could be dispersed throughout buildings and deposited on hands by hand dryers."

Great. Just great.