You've seen this before. It's in every public restroom. The Dyson Airblade hand dryer requires no paper towels, making it super green to use. Right? Except, according to a new study, you might be spreading some bacteria around.

Conducted by the University of Westminster and published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology, the Dyson Airblade can spread 60 times more bacteria than standard hot air dryers and 1,300 more times bacteria compared to using paper towels.


The researchers dipped their hands in water containing a harmless virus before drying them with the Airblade, a standard hot air dryer, and paper towels and found the Airblade had the worst effect.

It dries your hands with air at 430 mph, blasting the virus up to three meters across the bathroom. The Standard dryer on the other hand spread the virus 75 cm while paper towels contained the virus within 25 cm.


Dyson responded by saying that this research was commissioned by the paper towel industry and it's flawed.