Personally I use to be a germaphobe it was a really big problem and I was always always sick.
I made the choice to stop caring so much and my health initially got worse before improving significantly. I can now go months without a cold, where before I had colds that lasted several months
Maybe we can become obsessed with cleanliness, but when it comes to toilets, public or otherwise, we cannot be too germaphobic. Itâs difficult to put it delicately, but fecal bacteria, E. coli, etc.,
are picked up in there!
It is a good idea to look closely at hygienic appliances and at what would be the best options, for our healthâs sake.
I noticed that some had concerns about using soap in public facilties. The evidence is that it is safe to use. For some articles that reference some of the studies into using âpublicâ soap see:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/germs-bar-of-soap_n_6349934
From an article about bacteria on soap comes this interesting tidbit about alcohol use:
âOne interesting thing though, when weâve had lots of outbreaks of winter vomiting disease, the norovirus, you see lots and lots of these alcohol dispensers springing up all over the place, saying, âClean your hands. This will help to stem outbreaks of norovirus.â Actually, norovirus doesnât have around its outside an oily bag which can be attacked by alcohol. Itâs a very tough little protein husk that the virus is made of and as a result, the virus is completely immune to alcohol hand wipes, and therefore, all youâre doing when youâre using alcohol is youâre producing a pure culture of norovirus on your hands. Soap and water on the other hand does work. So the best thing to do, is always wash your hands. Helen.â
About the original post, why is this Dysonâs fault, and not proper cleaning from the cleaning staffâs fault?
The dryer could be designed in a way that water was evaporated rather than deposited elsewhere.
Good point, it could have been designed with less of a concave, more of a convex shape below the blower. Is this not addressed in the newer V design?
Interestingly, the Dyson support line call sequencer greets callers with the following menu.
"If you are calling about the Dyson WiFi Connected Air Purifer, please press 1.
If you are calling about the Dyson Blade Hand Dryer, please press 2.
For any other Dyson query, please press 3."
As this is the customer support line and not a product inquiry line, it gives an impression that problems with the air purifiers and the hand dryers must be prolific.
I own one of their air purifiers, and Iâd say many calls are probably regarding connecting them to wifi as they have no interface so probably confuse a lot of people.
My wife and I attended a social function with friends at a local sports club restuarant tonight.
The club had a Dyson Airblade hand dryer in the restroom and it was spotless.
They also had a paper towel sheet dispenser which is what I opted for.
My wife and I attended another social function with friends at another local sports club restuarant last night.
They also had a Dyson Airblade hand dryer in the restroom and it was also spotless.
They also had a paper towel sheet dispenser which is what I opted for as usual.
A good point that is applicable to all blower type paperless hand driers.
Is it fair to suggest that the invention of the blower type hand driers only serves one purpose. IE to remove the need forte owner of a facility to provide and manage paper towel waste.
It is an economic outcome for the owner, not necessarily hygiene or convenience outcome for the customer.
Is the whole industry or product concept subsequently built on a misconception?
Should they be banned unless they incorporate some means to effectively capture the moisture removed?
Should the capture ensure that hygiene risks are also minimised?
This whole concept looks a little shonky from the discussion so far. Nothing a little soap, liquid or solid, and personal hand towels canât replace.
Iâll go so far as to suggest most consumers would agree, otherwise our homes would have an air hand drier in every bathroom.
Funny enough, Dyson has another model which would avoid the problems of the Airflow dB modelâŠ
They even on their website sayâŠâThe most hygienic hand dryerâŠâ. I wonder if this is in recognition of the idenified hygiene design flaws of the Airflow dB?
Or that these are the most popular devices owned by their consumers.
I discovered the hand dryer that assaults my ears is a Dyson Airblade. For me the hygiene question is a separate issue. It is the noise that I object to. It may not damage my ears in short bursts, but in the confines of a small tiled space I find it unbearable. Clearly, if this is not a problem to the majority, one must put up, but if one shuts up this will never be determined.
This is a very long read, but itâs a recent article about the war between paper towel manufacturers and hand dryers (including the Airblade), with quite a bit about the history of hand drying throughout the years and the research thatâs been conducted about which is more hygienic.
This raises another issue. Whenever a toilet is flushed, it flings particles of water into the air. Of course, as itâs a toilet those water particles are not alone - they come with whatever faecal matter and urine was in the bowl. So⊠if youâre in a busy shared toilet facility, youâre breathing in part of whatever is being âflushed awayâ.
In turn this leaves me with a conundrum when I enter a shared toilet facility and find that the previous occupant didnât flush. Assuming that all other bays are occupied, should I flush, or should I lay down a ream of paper and hope not to get splash-back?
I am one of those people who wipes every surface, and opens the door with a spare paper towel.
I suppose that is one of the reasons why toilets have lidsâŠexcept for many public toilets where the lids have intentionally been removed possible to prevent vandalism.
I close the toilet seat, too. Using a piece of paper, of course. The problem remains, like @postulative has remarked, of previous air particles.
( Sorry, could not Quote, something wrong at my end.)
Except also perhaps in Japan where almost universally they are everywhere and fully functional in every way!
Unfortunately the dreaded air blade has started random guest appearances in Japan mainly where foreign tourists are also common.
For everyone else there is the Japanese practice of carrying your own personal hand towel. So useful in nearly every circumstance, and no need to risk a close encounter with possibly alien sourced bacteria of any kind.
P.S. and if you are lucky the toilet seat will auto open, self close and flush of itâs own necessity. Change the nature of the problem and it will go away?
On increased hygiene to the point of obsession⊠As the human body needs to interact with a variety of micro-organisms, viruses and similar to function properly there is perhaps too much 1st world concern with what is in the air we breathe. Sure I donât want to breathe in some viruses, bacteria, fungi but OTT behaviour can be just as harmful to our well-being.
If someone has obsessive concern about what they breathe or touch in the toilet facilities, then what is in environment around them such as the dust when they step inside or outside any structure or take a breath anywhere, the particles/matter they contact and ingest when they garden, the particles/matter present when they fill up their car, when they go to the Drs or hospitals, when they eat at a restaurant, the contaminants when they touch money or hand cards to other people, when they eat any food, drink any water bar perhaps freshly distilled water from a sealed and gamma irradiated container, really when they use anything it can fill them with such dread they refuse all contact with anything. Some âbatheâ themselves in such âcleanlinessâ they actually compromise their own health and make themselves more susceptible to contracting diseases/infections by reducing the effectiveness of their bodyâs immune system.
Certainly washing hands and drying them properly before consuming food or after toileting, using a mask when they have the Flu or other airborne infections or when the infections are in high concentration around them (eg Flu season in a busy area) are sensible precautions to take.
