Study reveals shocking reason you may want to avoid high-speed hand dryers

Updated
How Hand Dryers Spread More Germs Than Paper Towels
How Hand Dryers Spread More Germs Than Paper Towels

New research from the University of Westminster in London revealed a jaw-dropping reason you may want to think twice before sticking your hands into high-speed dryers in public restrooms.

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While these high-end dryers may dry hands quickly, they expose users to 60 times more germs than a traditional lower speed dryer, according to a study published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology.

If that wasn't startling enough, they also spread germs 1,300 more times than using paper towels.

Researchers came to this conclusion by having subjects dip their hands into virus-laden water and comparing the speed the virus traveled to an object in the room when using different drying methods, according to The Guardian.

The high-speed dryers ended up blasting the virus as far as 9 feet across the room while standard the dryers only about 2.5 feet, according to KCPQ.

The cleanest method ended up being paper towels since the virus only spread about 10 inches.

Related: See how to stop a cold in its tracks:

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