Letters to the Editor
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A few problems with this article
1. No link to the study. And a quick check at climateconservancy.org shows that all of its studies are currently underway.
So where did the author find the info... any why would an editor let an author mention a study without that reference (preferably as a link, obviously).
2. The article says "using one paper towel drains the equivalent of one ounce of greenhouse gases" ... and perhaps this is possible if the paper towel is effectively sequestering some carbon. And then the comparison says the dryer "accounts for less than half an ounce.". And the dryer thus "wins the race"... what a poor choice of metaphors. Apparently "draining" is meant to stand for "generating".
Don't Salon editors check for confusing terminology?
Did the author perhaps misinterpret the study? We can't tell without that link.
3. An another needlessly unanswerable question: does the study take into account the increased air conditioning burden for air dryers used in air conditioned settings?
And, off topic, I'd like to point out that air dryers are unsuitable for drying one's face or as ersatz washclothes.
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The ultimate solution to this already exists in Japan
A number of years ago (before the tech bust), I was travelling in Japan on business. I discovered a number if great things there, including Japanese department stores and Japanese hand dryers. Leave it to them to design a hand dryer that is not only energy efficient but actually worked! It was a type of blow dryer that you inserted your hands into through a slot at the top, kind of like a toaster. The heated air was blown downward from vents around the hand insertion slot. Water was blown off of your hands starting at the wrist and towards the fingertips. Since the heated air was almost completely confined inside the unit, it wasn't being wasted by being blown out into the open bathroom. The unit turned itself on when it sensed your hands being inserted and turned itself off when it sensed your hands had been removed. These machines dried your hands quickly, efficiently, and more effectively than anything else I've ever seen including paper towels. The only downside I could see was that you couldn't aim the nozzle upwards and dry your pits like Madonna did in "Desperately Seeking Susan". Why can't we have machines like this here?
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Don't drive a Prius - it might kill you
Becca,
Too bad. You were making such great progress in your article, but then you let the paper towel industry propaganda get you all muddled up.
It's a bit disapointing that you would quote a study that was funded by the paper towel industry stating that hand dryers are less hygenic than paper towels when there are other independent studies that dispute this. What about the 1991 University of Ottowa study or the 2000 Mayo clinic study or the 2000 Journal of Microbiology study?
Like most true Americans, faced with the opportunity to do something for the planet ... you chose the easy way out.
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All right, I admit it,
I used to work in the paper industry. And, while for some that would disqualify me for the discussion, I claim the opposite. Working for the paper industry gave me an incredible appreciation for the genius, the variability, the durability (those little cellulose bonds can be recycled not just once but through a dozen uses), the human potential expanding character of this amazing invention.
This discussion should begin with an appreciation for a good paper towel, a wonder, compared with the lousy filler-laden, spun-air jobbies found in most of the institutional toilets of today. A good paper hand towel can really TOWEL one's hands. It is like one of those Platonic dialogues where Socrates carries on about the significance of the fit between a thing and its function. A good paper towel is an approximation of a true platonic form.
Same with the other great consumer papers from great writing papers, to great book papers, to wondrous wrapping papers, to the stuff they print the money on-- most of which have been systematically cheapened in recent years. We the consumer, in this global marketplace for those little cellulose bonds, simply cannot afford to purchase too many of them for our sundry daily paper uses.
But the decisive thing seems to be this: "pollution free warm air hand driers" (a wretched, bald-faced lie no paper company--not saints themselves-- would ever think to tell)-- which, by the way, have for many years been twistable upward toward one's face-- do not work.
So the choice is not between two ways to dry one's hands but between a way to dry one's hands and the simulation of a way of drying one's hands.
In these terms, it is hardly a choice, for those not absolutely lost in false consciousness.
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Oh, for heaven's sake
Handwashing is not necessarily about whether you peed on your hands. It's also about whether you touched a door, or a lock, or a flusher, or anything else, that someone else touched. Multiple someone elses. Some of whom didn't wash their hands at all, if the occasional survey result is to be believed.
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Ideas
I prefer paper towels. You can't wash your face if the men's room has only a blow dryer. I don't like the jet-powered hand dryers I has used. They have almost removed my wedding ring a couple of times.
I always carry a handkerchief for those restrooms without any means of drying one's hands. I also carry a couple of moist towelettes in my daypack. My wife carries a small bottle of alcohol. We keep moist towelettes or Purell in the car.
I try to mental notes about which of my co-workers does not wash his hands. No shaking that guy's hand.
Keeping one's hands clean and thus reducing infections, colds, etc. is like many things in life a matter of effort and will.
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az, this is true for every doorknob and fixture
Do you use disposable paper towels when you open the door to the bank, the grocery store, the movie theatre, the ... well, you get the idea. Any of those doorknobs are going to have the same germs on them, from the same people who didn't wash their hands after using the restroom. Mind you, you also do not know what germs the paper towel has on it - as I was saying, the manufacturing process is not sterile.
If you're that worried about germs, sterile rubber gloves and surgical masks will protect you much better than a non-sterile paper towel wrapped around the doorknob. Me, I'll just wash my hands, dry them on a hanky (or my jeans) and take my chances with the doorknob-dwelling germs. Gives my immune system a workout and prevents autoimmune problems later in life.