A woman ran a little experiment of her own with a bathroom hand dryer and the results are fantastically disgusting.

I've personally never been a fan of hand dryers, mostly because they take way too long and give my hands the Goldilocks effect -- they're either too wet or too dry, but never just right. However, I kind of like the newer Dyson Airblade dryers (the nice newer gray ones that are usually waist level). Now I have a new reason to despise those noisy ass bathroom behemoths as well -- they're gross... maybe.

Now I'm not going to pretend to understand the science behind this, nor will I vouch for the methodology used here. All I have to go on is the information provided by Nichole Ward and an incredibly disgusting photo. Here's what she wrote about her little hand dryer experiment, the results of which can be seen in the photo:

This here, Is what grew in a Petri dish after just a few days. I stuck the open plate in an enclosed hand dryer of a public bathroom for a total of 3 minutes. Yes 3 only. DO NOT EVER dry your hands in those things again. This is the several strains of possible pathogenic fungi and bacteria that you’re swirling around your hands, and you think you’re walking out with clean hands. You’re welcome.

Again, I can't speak to whether or not proper scientific method was applied here, toward which there does seem to be a healthy bit of online skepticism. Dyson told ABC News they were surprised by the post, and that it's "misleading" because, "All Dyson Airblade hand dryers have HEPA filters that capture particles as small as bacteria from the washroom air before it leaves the machine." Some researchers have found that information to be incorrect though, as you can see in the video below.

 

So what's the verdict here? Who knows. All I can tell you is that this picture is gross and next time there's only a hand dryer available I'll probably just do the old "shake dry" until I can find some paper towel. Not because I think this is 100% legit, but because I already do that half of the time anyway and feel that my instincts have been somewhat validated now.

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