How Jet Dryers Or Not Drying Hands Impact Bacteria

Due to the increasing spread of the Covd-19 pandemic it has become even more imperative that precautions be taken to prevent the spread of viruses. One simple measure that can be taken is widespread, effective hand washing. However guidelines for hand washing often do not contain a recommendation for a specific method of hand drying despite many studies showing that drying methods can influence the spread of bacteria. This study expands on prior research by examining if the use of a jet air dryer leaves more bacteria on hands than undried hands, and assumes that the drying method’s impact on bacteria is comparable to the method’s impact on viruses. Students at a South Carolina high school were given guidelines for washing hands and then after using their assigned drying method their hands were swabbed. This sample was transferred to an agar plate and after a week in an incubator, bacteria colony counts were manually counted and recorded. When this data was imputed into a two sample T-test, after the removal of a major outlier, the p-value was .085, meaning that the results were statistically insignificant. However, three plates evaporated or melted during their time in the incubator. Thus further research is needed to conclude whether this experiment’s results were due to undercoverage since the p value is close to being less than .05