Paper Towels Win Over Hand Dryers
Custodians clean a hand dryer in a bathroom outside Kirby Ballroom.
“Dryers are more sanitary to use than paper,” the label on a World Dryer hand dryer in Weber Music Hall boasts. However, custodians at UMD recommend paper towels as the more sanitary option, because hand dryers collect bacteria. and risk student safety.
“Paper towels are definitely the way to go,” UMD custodian LeAnn said. She has worked on campus for 32 years, and she said that germs are her top concern.
According to Chris Stevens, an operations manager for UMD Facilities Management, the pandemic has made people more hesitant to use hand dryers. He said the question that people have been asking is “are we pushing all these germs around?”
“I’m noticing people aren’t using these much anymore. They’re using paper towels,” LeAnn agreed.
Concerns over the cleanliness of hand dryers are legitimate. According to a study conducted by Harvard Health, hand dryers pull in a “fecal cloud” of microbes from the surrounding bathroom that are released every time a lidless toilet flushes. This bacterial cloud can spread out over 65 square feet, so hand dryers collect germs no matter where in the bathroom they are located. The dryers can then dump this bacteria “on the newly washed hands of unsuspecting patrons” as they expel hot air.
“Paper towels are the most hygienic way to dry your hands,” Harvard Health concluded.
Bacteria aren’t the only thing that accumulates on and contaminates hand dryers. According to LeAnn, soap residue and dust accumulate on hand dryers despite frequent cleanings, making them one of the grossest parts of the bathroom to clean.
Facilities Management also considers safety when equipping bathrooms with hand dryers and paper towels. According to Stevens, hand dryers blow water onto bathroom floors, creating dangerous slipping conditions. Since this water can accumulate every time a user dries their hands, it’s difficult for custodial crews to keep the floor safe and dry in bathrooms that provide hand dryers.
Despite these concerns, hand dryers are the only option in some UMD bathrooms, such as the one in Cina Hall.
“We try to use less paper products when we can,” Stevens explained. “It’s extra labor to … remove trash.”
Facilities Management is responsible for cleaning 3.4 million square feet on UMD’s campus, so the extra labor involved in cleaning and restocking paper towels is significant. Some student actions make this job even harder.
“You’ll get the idiot who will take paper towels and clog toilets,” UMD custodian Brian Marek said.
Hand dryers are installed in all newly constructed or renovated bathrooms across campus, to comply with system-wide building standards. However, Facilities Management often comes back to add paper towels by departmental request, especially in lab spaces and food service areas.
The ADA recommends that hand dryers and paper towel dispensers be hands-free, in order to be more accessible for everyone. Even so, UMD only installs manual paper towel dispensers, because automatic paper towel dispensers cost seven times more than manual dispensers, according to Stevens. This compromise in accessibility makes the Facilities Management budget flexible enough that they can grant most departmental requests for paper towel dispensers.
“We’re just wanting to have a welcoming and accommodating campus,” Stevens said.