Washing your hands didn’t used to be a thing you had to consciously consider prior to coronavirus.

Maybe it should have been. But for the most part, you simply would wash your hands when you could. That was it. Nothing to it. You didn’t even think about it.

And now, it’s a big deal. For a small percentage of the population, it could mean life and death.

We’ve covered exactly how to wash your hands in previous posts. And now, what should you do after you wash your hands to keep yourself and everyone else safe?

Backed by sophisticated studies, Experts recommend using paper towels to dry your hands instead of air dryers.

What Makes Paper Towels Better?

Interestingly, the UK-based study led by Dr. Ines Moura proving the superiority of paper towels had enough forethought to assume that subjects would not wash their hands correctly. That’s precisely what most people do, so it makes total sense to start there.

Basically, air dryers blow viruses all over the place. The study found 5x more viruses on subjects’ clothing and 10x more viruses on physical surfaces!

The study noted that both air dryers and paper towels do remove a significant amount of viruses. So each does have some effectiveness.

But when you compare the two, paper towels win the competition by far.

To gather the data from which to draw conclusions, researchers had subjects wear an apron over their clothes. And they also analyzed common public surfaces like doors, handrails, elevator buttons, and public chairs.

This is one real and accurate study of what happens in daily life.

If you like technical reading, you can check out the full study here.

The Obvious Implications

Sometimes you have studies that suggest more research needs to be done to prove a certain conclusion.

But not in this case. This study has a precisely irrefutable conclusion. And past studies have found the same.

So, as you return to work in the days and months ahead, not only should your staff follow the CDC’s handwashing guidelines, but they should also dry their hands with paper towels.

Air dryers may be more environmentally friendly. But using paper towels can literally save lives!