Validation, Finally

I dislike hand dryers in public bathrooms generally, but I really hate those obnoxiously loud Dyson Airblades.

Their only redeeming quality is that they're good candidates for the Faces in Things Twitter feed. Otherwise, keep them away from me and my ears.

Now it's not just my hearing that need protection from them: they also spread germs like the dickens.

If you have a nasty cold one of the most effective ways to spread it is to wet your hands and then plunge them into a 400 mph blast of air capable of carrying viruses three metres across the room.

That, at least, is the conclusion of scientists who have found that using a jet-air dryer, such as a Dyson Airblade, spreads 60 times more bugs than an old-fashioned warm-air model and 1,300 times more than paper towels.

Yuck! I'm no germ phobe, but it's ridiculous that these (and the older kind of hand dryers, too) are used so commonly when it's clear they spread germs much more than towels.