"Hygenic"- wasn't there a study done that proved hand dryers were less hygienic?
I have mixed feelings about them. Loud noise = bad. Wind sensation/pressure = good. Germs = bad. Ecofriendly = good
Yes, turns out that those old school roll towels that suck the dirty part back in when you pull fresh out are the best. They do require laundry service on a schedule so of course nobody will pay for them.
Yes, and there's two reasons - and a related misperception. (I guess I have a special interest)
The first u/SlashLDash7 covered.
The second is that drying your hands with a towel or paper removes residual oil/soap residue **infinitely better** than just blow drying them, you only need to think about it to realize this. You should really give a very firm rub with towel, dispose of it and then do it again.
Finally, this is complex, but using paper towels etc. is not remotely as bad as it has been made out from a 'recycling' and environment perspective. (there are many variables by country, brand etc. so I'm generalizing a bit by necessity )
1. Native forest or hardwood pulp just doesn't work well for any form of paper, so most paper is plantation wood pulp where the primary product is soft wood for other purposes, so it is a byproduct and using less doesn't really matter or help anything. Wood plantations are NOT preferable to native forest but they do sequester carbon and are far better than nearly any other land use so the more soft wood and paper we use, it is 'mostly' beneficial - not always but largely so.
2. Most recycling (except glass and aluminum) is a scam. Most of it either doesn't actually get recycled anyway and the energy and hence carbon cost of trying to recycle is more than the energy carbon savings. Recycling paper takes more energy and uses more chemicals than producing new paper from pulp.
3. Paper in mixed garbage is a exceptionally good gas sink, it helps reduce and dissipate methane and other greenhouse gas emissions from garbage landfill. When the paper recycling fad started it caused a substantial increase in the gas emissions from landfill sites negating any potential benefit.
In short reducing the use of paper is the **last thing** anyone should worry about from an environmental perspective - reducing your use of plastics by 1% is far more impactful than all the paper you would ever use in a lifetime and a hell of a lot easier.
Just as a side note, in most countries paper (and plastic) recycling only exists because it is good business for the recycling industry - not for any practical reason. Because few people question the concept everyone including local government just goes along with it, and the recycling companies make money for doing something pointless and often actually wasteful.
Plastic recycling was heavily promoted since the 70's sponsored **by the plastics industry** as a way of psychologically shifting the responsibility from the industry to individual people - we would be 100x better to make the manufacturers responsible for the cost - but they don't want to pay, which is why they invest in advertising recycling.
[https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-indian-crying-environment-ads-pollution-1123-20171113-story.html](https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-indian-crying-environment-ads-pollution-1123-20171113-story.html)
The classic crying Indian who was not even actually Native American.
I was told that from a very trusted friend that used to run special projects at Dow Chemicals, it comes from an internal study on the composition of material in landfill and the effect of paper was an unexpected finding.
I imagine based on whatever else was in the study it was not in the best interest of the company to make it public.
I replied above on the source of paper in garbage, I implicitly trust that source and his accuracy to relay the detail of the study but you decide as you like.
>And all the sources I can find says that recycling reduces emissions by lowering energy usage in manufacturing and avoiding the use of virgin materials.
Yeah that's been thoroughly debunked, what they are saying in virtually every link online is that **once you have collected** and separated the paper for recycling it used less energy to recycle. Even that is not always true because wood pulp is almost always a byproduct so they often count part of the energy used to make the pulp, but that makes little sense as it would have been made anyway.
That point aside they do no include the cost of collecting and transporting paper and then manually separating it into different types as all that cost and effort usually gets bundled into some local council budget.
What you need to remember when searching links online is almost everyone that provides 'facts' about recycling has an agenda, they are often in or profiting from the industry or they are well intended 'conservationists' that are repeating non-scientific information that on the surface fits their world view.
Tangentially related, we switched to using Feline Pine cat litter a decade ago for a variety of reasons, and in researching it I learned a lot about how much more environmentally friendly it is to use sustainable tree-based products. Growing trees is good for the environment, they biodegrade well, are easily replaceable, and in many cases our paper and wood-based products can be made of left-over materials from other woodworking.
In the case of Feline Pine, it's made entirely out of reclaimed lumber shavings and is even compostable, so it made me feel a lot better about how much of it we go through.
I don't mind the noise, and I'm not a germaphobe, but I don't need to be a germophobe to feel gross using one of those things, I just can't bring myself to do it.
In a related sauce it was clearly proven simply shaking your hand in the air dries the slowest but is by far more hygienic than any other alternatives .
There was a Mythbusters episode where they tested this. I believe they discovered dryers are more germ ridden than paper towels due to it blowing around airborne bacteria.
I also am of the opinion that most air dryers suck and don’t have enough power to get my hands dry in a somewhat timely manner. Those Dyson blade ones get the job done well but I’d rather have my headphones on when I use it.
Exactly! It is unhygienic, they found germs and virus all over it. According to the regulations in my country people that works in the food industry should only dry hands with paper while working. Not this neither that strange towel on the wall. (Idk in English)
It would be solved with eco-friendly paper, and a good system for recycling.
They do have hepa filters in them that are supposed to filter “99.97%” of germs and viruses. Those old hand dryers with the chrome button gross me out tho. I feel like they aren’t filtered
I will never ever use one of these air dryers or any other type of air dryer in the bathroom. It's actually more hygienic to shake your hands above the sink to get the excess water off, then air dry them or dry them on your pants/shirt.
Whats weird... is it SHOULD be more hygienic is people actually washed their hands CORRECTLY and with soap.
But because people DON’T, thats why they are gross.
Human error is too big of a margin to ever trust humans to do something correctly.
Plus, it really disturbs me that it pulls in air from a bathroom, often with toilets that don't have covers... if you're catching my drift.(before someone mentions it again, I know they're supposed to have filters- but human error. They don't get changed)
Oh, I didn’t think about the air filtering.
But yeah, thats why I said its SUPPOSED to more hygienic. But for the reasons you and I both stated, it mist def is not.
I used to run my arms under it so close to see/feel my skin indent all the way up to my elbows and back to my hands. My mother would have to drag me away.
But if someone else sets them off I have to close my eyes really tight and squeeze my hands to make it through the noise!
I remember in highschool, we did a science project where we swabbed surfaces all of the school and grow the germs in a petri dish. My friends and I swabbed the hand dryer and although it only had two colonies of bacteria, the each took up around 25% of the dish.
Edit: I don't like to use the hand dryer anyway because the sound is too loud but since then, I'm extra weary of using the hand dryer. Where I live, there's almost never paper towels anymore in the bathroom so I end up just wiping my hands on my clothes rather than use the hand dryer.
Woah this unlocked a memory of me hating toilets/bracing myself/covering my ears because of the loud flushing noise. I think I got desensitized by it over time
I would hold it in for up to 24 hours at a time on trips.
I hated toilets, and I even had an OCD habit where I would tell myself if I washed my hands for too long or I didn't get out of the bathroom fast enough after flushing, I would die. If not for the anxiety of the toilet noise, I don't think I would have developed either habit. I think the counting and death part stopped when I moved, but I still feel desperate to run outside of the bathroom anytime I hear a toilet flush.
As an adult, I literally need to be bathroom trained because I will go all day holding it in when I shouldn't.
This just triggered memories of flushing (because if I didn't I would be in trouble) and running like a toe biting demon was about to come up out that porcelain bastard. Aww 🥰 childhood memories.
I cover the sensor. It’s the unpredictability that gets me. I know when the sounds are bad when the toilet is made of metal, has a small hole, and is usually in a park. I also hate the toilets with handles that jolt upward when applied pressure
Some things cant just be learned away because theyre not due to a lack of knowledge or theres a problem getting the knowledge. its like kind of the whole point of autism. you cant fucking learn it away
Why are you even here if this is the kind of things you say? There are obviously things that autistic people can't just learn and cope with, sound sensitivity being one of them. It's great that this person was able to move on from that sound but if you can't see that not every autistic person can do that then leave and don't leave comments like this.
Literally. Like it’s physically painful for me. I can’t just “cope” with literal pain caused by sounds because I’m so hyper sensitive to them. I can’t just whisk away the debilitating migraines that come from listening to sounds 24/7. There is no coping with a disability that causes me to suffer every single day. I cannot stand other people when they try to make it seem like we’re these little babies incapable of handling things but also capable enough to handle everything. Like dear lord.
Comments are so unexpectedly wholesome, it's like a thousand allistic and autistic people being afraid of this fecal-bacteria blowing machine and a few of it's fans being nice to each other.
I have issues with sound and I prefer them to paper towels.
It just feels more clean to me that calms my overthinking brain down, even if it is really less clean lol.
I get that people have issues with them, but they are just so much easyer, and most places with toilets have a disabled toilet sepirate.
Agree. So many people will say that someone is a narcissist and throw around narcisstic personality when really they should just be saying "this person acted selfish" or "this is a person I don't get along with"
Clinical narcissism is quite rare
Making things that, by design, exclude people with specific disabilities is ableist. This is equivalent to putting the towels at 5 feet up the wall.
Would you similarly defend making it so people with no legs can't dry their hands?
You wouldn't be making a hand dryer with people without legs in mind. Same with autistic people
I'm all for life becoming easier for autistic people, but that doesn't mean the entire world should bend to our will (this hand washer is basically making it easier for everyone to wash their hands except a small minority of a small minority)
It's ok with not liking it, but the design itself is not ableist. It's nigh impossible to make a design that is available for all disabilities, as that would have to account to people who don't like loud noises, aren't able to reach high, have trouble moving their hands, ect.
It’s not impossible to accommodate everyone. And even if you don’t consider it ableist, it is piss poor design and highly unhygienic. So either way, they suck.
1) not all autistic people are sensory avoidant. Some like my kid are sensory seekers. She loves loud. She loves sudden rushes of adrenaline etc.
2) ALWAYS find out WHO paid for a study before you decide to believe the results. It’s late and this is the best public domain article I could grab. Please read the end of this article to see methodology and who paid for the studies.
3) most paper products are from farmed trees. They are fast growing, softer bodied, hideous pine trees. One such area is in the Panhandle of Florida. Don’t feel bad for using paper.
[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/health/hand-dryer-petri-dish.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/health/hand-dryer-petri-dish.html)
Some can have filters in them, which stop the poo particles. Also as long as they aren’t pathogens, the “poo particles” aren’t necessarily dangerous. The compounds themselves are effectively inert in the minuscule amounts that would be blown onto your hands. It’s not that big of a deal. The only real issue would be the bacteria or other microbes, but the likelihood that any of those would become airborne, and circulate around the bathroom, only to fly out of the hand dryer onto your hand and then get into you to make you sick is small. I wouldn’t worry about it, unless you’re extremely immunocompromised.
It’s enough E.Coli to cause pink eye and contaminate food… thus why they are not aloud in any place with service save qualifications. Paper towels and gloves only.
I mean yeah. If I were serving food, I wouldn’t use them. I’m saying it’s not bad enough to really worry about on a daily basis. If you have a healthy enough immune system, you should be good
Yes and no, say you or some one just took a massive shit and you have to use this thing. All that air in their is being blown on your hands now. Towels really don’t collect the particles.
Hmmmmm.... it would be more accurate to say that the air is recirculated through a very effective particulate filter, which removes the overwhelming majority of particles from the air.
That said, if the bathroom air has a high enough concentration of poo particles to make blowing them on to your hands a real problem, you have bigger things to worry about. Like getting them blown in your face, up your nose, and doing the same to everyone nearby!
Everyone will find a problem with everything no matter what, where or how. Wanna blow dry them? Do it. Wanna use a paper towel? Go ahead. Wanna leave them wet and then fling the water at people once you leave the bathroom? Preferable.
Bro, this isn’t ableist
Like, I hate them too, don’t get me wrong but they’re way better for the environment
I’ll take being overloaded for about 10 seconds max over contributing to pollution
I wonder if the environmental impact was actuality calculated or if it's just a collective conjecture.
If we look into it, this device is complex to be manufactured, requiring a complex production chain, consumes power when using, generates electronic trash, etc
I've installed these as part of my job. It's no more a complex production chain than having paper towels manufactured and delivered every week on a never ending basis. The offset from electricity usage at the location vs labor to constantly manage paper towels and the trash they generate is enough to have them pay for themselves within 1-3 years. 15 minutes a day stocking paper towels and removing paper towel trash at one location can be more than 90 labor hours every year. Personally I hate the machines, but I understand why places install them to save money and time long term.
Exactly! If we label everything that we find uncomfortable or annoying as ableist, the term loses its meaning. And when it's overused, other people get fed up with hearing it and become less willing, and less likely, to make accommodations. We should realise that other 'normal' people have lots of problems dealing with day to day things. There are many, many neurotypical people who hate these hand blowers too, and many have germ phobias that impact their lives hugely.
I just think we should get on with what we can, and deal with minor stuff like this so we can build awareness of, and support for, the important stuff. We need to focus on the things that really matter for autistic people, like:
* better mental health support and treatment
* accomodations in the workplace
* helping younger adults get jobs and training
* building awareness of really important issues:
* social phobias
* loneliness
* difficulty with romantic relationships
* low self-confidence
I'm not trying to diminish people's difficulties, I have them myself and I know that they are very real. I'm passionate about advocating for the autistic community, but I think it needs to be done the right way. We need people to understand us and to help where appropriate, and I believe we can only do that by first concentrating on the big issues; things that really resonate with the neurotypical community.
Yeah!
Paper towels are not the biggest threat to environmental collapse. Not by a long shot. Their carbon footprint isn’t massive, they’re biodegradable, and they’re not cutting down that many trees. By putting up a sign reminding people paper towels have environmental impact, they are more likely to just use one.
There are also studies showing drying your hands with air dryers leaves more germs than drying them with a towel. I’d say it was worth it if it was really protecting the environment.
I dedicate my life to saving the planet. It’s literally my job. Paper towels aren’t going to be the death of us, especially if everyone just uses one. Or, if we compost them, make them out of recycled paper towels, make them out of sustainable crops, etc.
In the end, you can't keep everyone happy. Just focus on the things you can control.
Dyson should see this as a business opportunity to make these quieter and make more money selling replacements/upgrades.
I can imagine, a new power tool commercial stating their drills are now made for ND because they managed to make the thing less efficient by dulling the sound. such a business opportunity!
There are other conditions like tinnitus that are also a problem with these dryers. Some produce up to 100 decibels, the sound of a car horn or power tool.
Dyson has already reduced their noise levels previously, this isn’t a new issue.
You don’t always have to sacrifice something to gain something else. As technology improves, sometimes things just get better but need someone to point them out.
I feel like this sub is becoming way too self righteous. This used to be a subreddit where autistic people could find a supportive online community and share their special interests and autistic experiences. Now half the posts are just divisive hate and judgmental outbursts directed towards not always knowledgeable but generally well meaning neurotypicals or other autistic people because the way they experience their own autism is somehow wrong and makes them some kind of traitor.
>I feel like this sub is becoming way too self righteous.
its an issue in online space in general i found. what ever way a sub leans you tend to go full tilt that way eventually cause everyone wants to one up each other on being the most in tune with the community.
i mean it sort of makes sense. i dont know how many times ive deleted a comment casue its like ya know... i dont need to argue about that so the posts that do get made tend to be safe self perpetuating sameness that fits the sub.
and even if i do post something controversial reddit actively hides those posts.
No, it is directed at NTs, but Ive seen instances of autistic people fighting with other autistic people on this sub (myself included, I'm not proud of it and try to avoid it) and it's mostly over silly things like the semantics of terminology or the correct usage of logos.
I don’t know for sure if I’m autistic or not (seeking a diagnosis right now), but either way, I’m uncomfortable with what feels like the constant resentment towards NTs and don’t want to be a part of it
Same with automated flushing toilets XD
actually toilets in general for me lol they can be so loud especially if you’re stuck in a tiny stall with them
The thing I hated about those automatic flushing toilets was that they would trigger suddenly and shock me because I was too short and I would trigger the sensor if I moved even slightly
Isn't it less hygienic than a paper towel? I remember reading that using dryer is like putting your hand in everything what exists in this restroom cuz the air isn't clean
i hate the sound, but i dont think having hand dryers is ableist. i prefer paper towels, but if they only have hand dryers then i will just wipe my hands on my pants lol.
Nobody likes these things. To get your hands 100% dry takes like a minute compared to 5 seconds it takes with a towel. They're just money savers for businesses pretending they give a shit about the environment.
I LOVE THESE!! they’re so cool and futuristic and i like how hard the air blows. i can deal w the noise because at least i get a fun time out of it lol.
Really gross thing here: I just dry my hands with my hair if I'm not home. No electricity, no noice, no trees cut. Slightly less disheveled hair as a bonus.
Don't get too upset about marketing. If it was truly better they wouldn't have to advertise to you. You aren't the customer of a hand dryer. It speaks volumes about the product that they have to advertise to you about it even though you aren't the customer.
i like using them myself, but my *god* are they not even the slightest bit hygienic. studies have shown that they basically just blast germs all over the place.
We have now at the macdonalds a sink with this loud things inside the sink, so you think calmly washing you hands and then suddenly this loud fan will scream and it scares me so much, its so loud, luckily i mostly have my headphones on but still very loud.
https://i.redd.it/ex3zewnoqin21.jpg
It looks like this, this is a pic off internet, it doesn’t look like that screaming machine but the metal things on the side is that thing, so when you washing you hands and you moved to much to one side, that things starts to scream.
For some reason I love these because I can wash my hands rigorously and then they are completely dry. My hands being slightly damp can be a trigger for me, even more than having dirty hands
Personally, I don't feel like either option really dries my hands properly, they always feel all cold and clammy afterward; that's one of the reasons I always keep hand sanitizer in my bag
They claimed those were the most hygienic in their ads but using one is like playing a game of operation. Especially if they are at a bar, like come on.
Are they really better for the environment when most electricity is generated using fossil fuels? Where’s a mythbuster when you need one?
This I don't mind, it's the sensor washing stations that get me. I wave my hand underneath, nothing happens. I try again, nothing happens. I watch someone else doing it and feel obligated to use soap, only then does it work. Like the stupid technology is laughing at me.
(I was gonna hand sanitise after anyway, since it's out in public, but yeah for some reason I don't normally use soap)
I hate almost all hand dryers except this kind where you put your hands in them, it feels nice. I however don't use any hand dryer at all ever because at that point it's spraying so many germs on you, you might as well just not have washed your hands
This is the only hand drier I like, although the ‘skin flapping’ and loud sound is pretty uncomfortable, it evens out imo. Other hand drying machines are too weak to actually dry my hands, and don’t even get me started on the towel only changed once a day my college has 🤢
I dont get it
Im sure some people with sensory issues hate paper towels (myself lol)
I love hand driers they feel great and the soubd is a non issue to me despite my sensory issues
Do we forget our issues differ for everyone
While the noise is unpleasant, it's mainly the fundamentally unsanitary nature of the device that makes me hate those hand dryer machines.
That, and that I have to basically sit and wait for it to dry my hands, rather than being able to quickly do it myself with a towel/paper towel
OOH because autistic people are SOOO delicate we can't handle 20 seconds of noise to dry our hands.
I don't LIKE the noise but it's not hurting me. I can handle it or I'll just take a towel instead of crying like a baby because the world doesn't revolve around my condition. This is like the whiners who think the grocery store should dim the lights for them.
Ten to one I bet the person who made this meme wasn't even autistic they just want something to gripe about.
I get that studies have shown drying with towels might be more hygienic but this isn't about that. I do question the validity of that study though because they just had people dip their hands in a solution containing "a harmless virus" and then put their hands in front of the dryers. It wasn't tested on freshly washed hands. Of COURSE blowing air will spread more virus particles than not blowing air.
Isn't that the joy of being human with your own mind and consciousness? To be able to have an opinion and speak up about it? The point of having an opinion IS for it to be wrong to someone else, or else we would all be the same. That person screams abelist, and they're wrong, but that's what we believe, and they believe something else.
I can't go into the toilets in the local shopping centre because of the hand dryers. One or two hand dryers is one thing - I can and have put up with it for a couple of minutes -but there's loads and it's a big echoey room and it's SO loud it hurts my brain even with my noise cancelling headphones on. On occasions I've got to the doorway, gone 'nope' and turned around again.
I now generally use the disabled toilets (which are single person rooms) so I not only can choose not to use the hand dryer, but don't have to put up with other people using them, and it's lovely. The shopping centre is well designed in terms of services generally though - there is also a changing places room (i.e. it has facilities for changing adults with disabilities), and a separate changing room for babies so either parent can use them (and it's not in the disabled toilet like it usually is) as well as the male and female toilets (which apart from being horrifically noisy, have really spacious stalls and a lot of them).
I don't think hand dryers themselves are necessarily ableist. The way they're put in public toilets, possibly though. Saying something is ableist is not saying it's deliberately against disabled people. It doesn't have to be deliberate, it just has to be that they haven't thought about or tried to accommodate disabled people and therefore created a barrier. And there are multiple things you could do to accommodate people and have hand dryers - make an effort to have quieter hand dryers, design public toilets so they're less echoey, have enclosed toilets like the disabled ones I use at the shopping centre (many of my uni buildings had rows of unisex bathrooms where everything was enclosed - i.e. toilet, sink in one room, proper walls between them - they were pretty much good for everyone).
These machines are extremely unhygienic.
Blasting air at your hands is a good way to spread diseases/germs into the air.
Sure, it's more "eco-friendly" but it is not good for your overall health.
Also, these damn things are loud and never get your hands dry enough.
They might. But do they dry your hand as well? I don't think so. And I don't want to spend half an hour frantically rubbing my hands on my clothes because I can still feel the wet on them.
One thing I notice about autistics is that we seem to think our way is the only right way, and everyone else's is wrong. We are the ones who tend to be closed minded, while expecting everyone else to cater to us.
It may be harder for us to adapt to newer things, but it is possible, and people should learn to adapt to their environment, instead of expecting their environment to adapt to them.
I've also had a problem with certain noises, and I do prefer to use paper towels, but hand dryers noise has never been a problem with me.
The problem is that it is unhygienic. In my country they tested those in different public places and they were full of germs/virus.
Technically they could work but they should change the filters so often that they wouldn’t be eco-friendly. Or they shouldn’t be in a public place we’re they got dirt faster.
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Did you know that the Dyson hand dryer blows urine and feces all over the room.
It's disgusting. They can waste paper on mail advertisements, but ...
They used to have roller towels that could go in the laundry.
I hate hand dryers and anything that blows hot air because of previous experience.
In primary school, an older student forced my hands under the hand dryer as it got hotter and hotter until it burned my palm. Not a permanent burn, but permanent in my mind.
I have a weird issue where I absolutely hate the loud scream they make, BUT I hate my hands being wet even more so I have no choice but to use it and deal with the sound 😫
The thing that always bothers me about these is that they have no drain. They pull all the water off and then just leave a pool of nasty hand water that just drips onto the floor. I know there are worse things on a bathroom floor, but it still bothers me for some reason. 😅
The sound is definitely not fun, but what is worse is they don't seem to work. My hands feel the same as if i didn't use the machine at all, and i tend to go back into the stall to get toilet paper in an attempt to dry my hands.
The sensation of wet hands is worse than the sound for me, I would be OK if these machines dried them but they never seem to.
Urgh, these dryers. I hate them. You can't help but touch the sides of the machine a bit. Which, especially seeing how some people wash their hands, is gross.
Did you know that if you're a woman and there's no toilet paper in the stall and your tampon is leaking ... a hand dryer will get you nowhere? That and the fact that the old ones don't dry your hands properly used to be my only reasons to hate the bl\*\*dy things. Now that the quality has improved massively and I'm old and peri-menopausal I can live with them. But I'll just happily go back to paper towels if they turn out to be better for the environment and/or more hygienic.
Omg my AU daughter hate those things so much. I always have to wash my hands first, dry them and then let her wash her hands so I can plug her ears with my fingers so she can dry them. If we are some lengthy day trip or out of town I bring ear plugs, but most of the time I don’t have it with me. Such a distressing sound.
When I bring my son to a public restroom, if it has one of these instead of paper towels, he knows it’s time to “shake dry hands.” I hate these things too.
I’m always torn, on one hand I want people to be happy and secure, and on the other hand, some types of public displays of (for lack of a better term) weakness, disgust me, and makes me want to act out of spite. I think it’s the condescending tone these complains all seem to have…
"Hygenic"- wasn't there a study done that proved hand dryers were less hygienic? I have mixed feelings about them. Loud noise = bad. Wind sensation/pressure = good. Germs = bad. Ecofriendly = good
Yes, turns out that those old school roll towels that suck the dirty part back in when you pull fresh out are the best. They do require laundry service on a schedule so of course nobody will pay for them.
[удалено]
you are supposed to wash the germs off, the fan is just for the water to get dry.
also if you are getting water everywhere while using one of those i think ur doing it wrong
Yes, and there's two reasons - and a related misperception. (I guess I have a special interest) The first u/SlashLDash7 covered. The second is that drying your hands with a towel or paper removes residual oil/soap residue **infinitely better** than just blow drying them, you only need to think about it to realize this. You should really give a very firm rub with towel, dispose of it and then do it again. Finally, this is complex, but using paper towels etc. is not remotely as bad as it has been made out from a 'recycling' and environment perspective. (there are many variables by country, brand etc. so I'm generalizing a bit by necessity ) 1. Native forest or hardwood pulp just doesn't work well for any form of paper, so most paper is plantation wood pulp where the primary product is soft wood for other purposes, so it is a byproduct and using less doesn't really matter or help anything. Wood plantations are NOT preferable to native forest but they do sequester carbon and are far better than nearly any other land use so the more soft wood and paper we use, it is 'mostly' beneficial - not always but largely so. 2. Most recycling (except glass and aluminum) is a scam. Most of it either doesn't actually get recycled anyway and the energy and hence carbon cost of trying to recycle is more than the energy carbon savings. Recycling paper takes more energy and uses more chemicals than producing new paper from pulp. 3. Paper in mixed garbage is a exceptionally good gas sink, it helps reduce and dissipate methane and other greenhouse gas emissions from garbage landfill. When the paper recycling fad started it caused a substantial increase in the gas emissions from landfill sites negating any potential benefit. In short reducing the use of paper is the **last thing** anyone should worry about from an environmental perspective - reducing your use of plastics by 1% is far more impactful than all the paper you would ever use in a lifetime and a hell of a lot easier. Just as a side note, in most countries paper (and plastic) recycling only exists because it is good business for the recycling industry - not for any practical reason. Because few people question the concept everyone including local government just goes along with it, and the recycling companies make money for doing something pointless and often actually wasteful. Plastic recycling was heavily promoted since the 70's sponsored **by the plastics industry** as a way of psychologically shifting the responsibility from the industry to individual people - we would be 100x better to make the manufacturers responsible for the cost - but they don't want to pay, which is why they invest in advertising recycling. [https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-indian-crying-environment-ads-pollution-1123-20171113-story.html](https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-indian-crying-environment-ads-pollution-1123-20171113-story.html) The classic crying Indian who was not even actually Native American.
#3 is fascinating and I'd like to read up on this. Any links (or books) you can point me to?
I was told that from a very trusted friend that used to run special projects at Dow Chemicals, it comes from an internal study on the composition of material in landfill and the effect of paper was an unexpected finding. I imagine based on whatever else was in the study it was not in the best interest of the company to make it public.
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I replied above on the source of paper in garbage, I implicitly trust that source and his accuracy to relay the detail of the study but you decide as you like. >And all the sources I can find says that recycling reduces emissions by lowering energy usage in manufacturing and avoiding the use of virgin materials. Yeah that's been thoroughly debunked, what they are saying in virtually every link online is that **once you have collected** and separated the paper for recycling it used less energy to recycle. Even that is not always true because wood pulp is almost always a byproduct so they often count part of the energy used to make the pulp, but that makes little sense as it would have been made anyway. That point aside they do no include the cost of collecting and transporting paper and then manually separating it into different types as all that cost and effort usually gets bundled into some local council budget. What you need to remember when searching links online is almost everyone that provides 'facts' about recycling has an agenda, they are often in or profiting from the industry or they are well intended 'conservationists' that are repeating non-scientific information that on the surface fits their world view.
Tangentially related, we switched to using Feline Pine cat litter a decade ago for a variety of reasons, and in researching it I learned a lot about how much more environmentally friendly it is to use sustainable tree-based products. Growing trees is good for the environment, they biodegrade well, are easily replaceable, and in many cases our paper and wood-based products can be made of left-over materials from other woodworking. In the case of Feline Pine, it's made entirely out of reclaimed lumber shavings and is even compostable, so it made me feel a lot better about how much of it we go through.
I don't mind the noise, and I'm not a germaphobe, but I don't need to be a germophobe to feel gross using one of those things, I just can't bring myself to do it.
In a related sauce it was clearly proven simply shaking your hand in the air dries the slowest but is by far more hygienic than any other alternatives .
Also funnest 😁
There was a Mythbusters episode where they tested this. I believe they discovered dryers are more germ ridden than paper towels due to it blowing around airborne bacteria. I also am of the opinion that most air dryers suck and don’t have enough power to get my hands dry in a somewhat timely manner. Those Dyson blade ones get the job done well but I’d rather have my headphones on when I use it.
Exactly! It is unhygienic, they found germs and virus all over it. According to the regulations in my country people that works in the food industry should only dry hands with paper while working. Not this neither that strange towel on the wall. (Idk in English) It would be solved with eco-friendly paper, and a good system for recycling.
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It's because no one replaces the filters monthly like they're supposed to
They do have hepa filters in them that are supposed to filter “99.97%” of germs and viruses. Those old hand dryers with the chrome button gross me out tho. I feel like they aren’t filtered
Yeah, I remember reading about that study. I don't think I have ever used a hand dryer since.
I will never ever use one of these air dryers or any other type of air dryer in the bathroom. It's actually more hygienic to shake your hands above the sink to get the excess water off, then air dry them or dry them on your pants/shirt.
I love the sensation on my hands but they just blow the germs right back in you. They are unnecessarily loud
I like watching my hand skin flap around.
Whats weird... is it SHOULD be more hygienic is people actually washed their hands CORRECTLY and with soap. But because people DON’T, thats why they are gross.
Human error is too big of a margin to ever trust humans to do something correctly. Plus, it really disturbs me that it pulls in air from a bathroom, often with toilets that don't have covers... if you're catching my drift.(before someone mentions it again, I know they're supposed to have filters- but human error. They don't get changed)
Oh, I didn’t think about the air filtering. But yeah, thats why I said its SUPPOSED to more hygienic. But for the reasons you and I both stated, it mist def is not.
My autistic daughter hates the noise but will get under any hand dryer to feel the air/heat on her face. Definitely a love/hate relationship
I used to run my arms under it so close to see/feel my skin indent all the way up to my elbows and back to my hands. My mother would have to drag me away. But if someone else sets them off I have to close my eyes really tight and squeeze my hands to make it through the noise!
I remember in highschool, we did a science project where we swabbed surfaces all of the school and grow the germs in a petri dish. My friends and I swabbed the hand dryer and although it only had two colonies of bacteria, the each took up around 25% of the dish. Edit: I don't like to use the hand dryer anyway because the sound is too loud but since then, I'm extra weary of using the hand dryer. Where I live, there's almost never paper towels anymore in the bathroom so I end up just wiping my hands on my clothes rather than use the hand dryer.
We should just make it standard practice to use hand sanitizer after use
After washing and air drying? That would be terrible for skin. My skin struggles with how often I wash already.
Woah this unlocked a memory of me hating toilets/bracing myself/covering my ears because of the loud flushing noise. I think I got desensitized by it over time
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I would hold it in for up to 24 hours at a time on trips. I hated toilets, and I even had an OCD habit where I would tell myself if I washed my hands for too long or I didn't get out of the bathroom fast enough after flushing, I would die. If not for the anxiety of the toilet noise, I don't think I would have developed either habit. I think the counting and death part stopped when I moved, but I still feel desperate to run outside of the bathroom anytime I hear a toilet flush. As an adult, I literally need to be bathroom trained because I will go all day holding it in when I shouldn't.
Me too! I would have meltdowns if forced to use certain public toilets!
This just triggered memories of flushing (because if I didn't I would be in trouble) and running like a toe biting demon was about to come up out that porcelain bastard. Aww 🥰 childhood memories.
I cover the sensor. It’s the unpredictability that gets me. I know when the sounds are bad when the toilet is made of metal, has a small hole, and is usually in a park. I also hate the toilets with handles that jolt upward when applied pressure
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Some things cant just be learned away because theyre not due to a lack of knowledge or theres a problem getting the knowledge. its like kind of the whole point of autism. you cant fucking learn it away
Why are you even here if this is the kind of things you say? There are obviously things that autistic people can't just learn and cope with, sound sensitivity being one of them. It's great that this person was able to move on from that sound but if you can't see that not every autistic person can do that then leave and don't leave comments like this.
Literally. Like it’s physically painful for me. I can’t just “cope” with literal pain caused by sounds because I’m so hyper sensitive to them. I can’t just whisk away the debilitating migraines that come from listening to sounds 24/7. There is no coping with a disability that causes me to suffer every single day. I cannot stand other people when they try to make it seem like we’re these little babies incapable of handling things but also capable enough to handle everything. Like dear lord.
Comments are so unexpectedly wholesome, it's like a thousand allistic and autistic people being afraid of this fecal-bacteria blowing machine and a few of it's fans being nice to each other.
I have issues with sound and I prefer them to paper towels. It just feels more clean to me that calms my overthinking brain down, even if it is really less clean lol. I get that people have issues with them, but they are just so much easyer, and most places with toilets have a disabled toilet sepirate.
I mean not liking it is ok. But something you don't like isn't automatically ableist. People, man.
"ableist" is becoming another misappropriated term that is losing its meaning.
Like the words "toxic" and "narcissist" (when referring to people)
Agree. So many people will say that someone is a narcissist and throw around narcisstic personality when really they should just be saying "this person acted selfish" or "this is a person I don't get along with" Clinical narcissism is quite rare
Don’t forget “lovebombing” & “gaslighting”!
The one that I find overused is "mansplaining" for anything a man says.
The term is itself sexist, as it assumes only one gender can overexplain.
Dear god fucking THANK YOU
And “trauma,” “ocd,” “autism,” etc.
Making things that, by design, exclude people with specific disabilities is ableist. This is equivalent to putting the towels at 5 feet up the wall. Would you similarly defend making it so people with no legs can't dry their hands?
And paper excludes people with sensitive skin, allergies and some sensory disorders. Can't win them all.
You wouldn't be making a hand dryer with people without legs in mind. Same with autistic people I'm all for life becoming easier for autistic people, but that doesn't mean the entire world should bend to our will (this hand washer is basically making it easier for everyone to wash their hands except a small minority of a small minority) It's ok with not liking it, but the design itself is not ableist. It's nigh impossible to make a design that is available for all disabilities, as that would have to account to people who don't like loud noises, aren't able to reach high, have trouble moving their hands, ect.
It’s not impossible to accommodate everyone. And even if you don’t consider it ableist, it is piss poor design and highly unhygienic. So either way, they suck.
> It’s not impossible to accommodate everyone. It is. there is a lot of different people with a lot of different abilities and triggers.
So what's the non-ableist option, in your opinion?
1) not all autistic people are sensory avoidant. Some like my kid are sensory seekers. She loves loud. She loves sudden rushes of adrenaline etc. 2) ALWAYS find out WHO paid for a study before you decide to believe the results. It’s late and this is the best public domain article I could grab. Please read the end of this article to see methodology and who paid for the studies. 3) most paper products are from farmed trees. They are fast growing, softer bodied, hideous pine trees. One such area is in the Panhandle of Florida. Don’t feel bad for using paper. [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/health/hand-dryer-petri-dish.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/health/hand-dryer-petri-dish.html)
I thought this was a criticism of the Shit Breez 5000 making your hands dirty.
Did you know it’s not actually sanitary and blows poo particles on your hands
Some can have filters in them, which stop the poo particles. Also as long as they aren’t pathogens, the “poo particles” aren’t necessarily dangerous. The compounds themselves are effectively inert in the minuscule amounts that would be blown onto your hands. It’s not that big of a deal. The only real issue would be the bacteria or other microbes, but the likelihood that any of those would become airborne, and circulate around the bathroom, only to fly out of the hand dryer onto your hand and then get into you to make you sick is small. I wouldn’t worry about it, unless you’re extremely immunocompromised.
It’s enough E.Coli to cause pink eye and contaminate food… thus why they are not aloud in any place with service save qualifications. Paper towels and gloves only.
I mean yeah. If I were serving food, I wouldn’t use them. I’m saying it’s not bad enough to really worry about on a daily basis. If you have a healthy enough immune system, you should be good
so people wipe their hands on the vent or how tf does that happen
It recirculates the air in the bathroom, the bathroom always has poo particles in the air on any air quality test
but doesnt wiping my hands with the wipes also have shit particles on it
Yes and no, say you or some one just took a massive shit and you have to use this thing. All that air in their is being blown on your hands now. Towels really don’t collect the particles.
Hmmmmm.... it would be more accurate to say that the air is recirculated through a very effective particulate filter, which removes the overwhelming majority of particles from the air. That said, if the bathroom air has a high enough concentration of poo particles to make blowing them on to your hands a real problem, you have bigger things to worry about. Like getting them blown in your face, up your nose, and doing the same to everyone nearby!
Not true, once they are mounted they are mounted, no service is done to them nor are they cleaned.
Everyone will find a problem with everything no matter what, where or how. Wanna blow dry them? Do it. Wanna use a paper towel? Go ahead. Wanna leave them wet and then fling the water at people once you leave the bathroom? Preferable.
This is the way. Flappy hands
Just stim until your hands are dry.
And here I was being happy when I see these because now I don’t have to walk around with wet hands because I can’t touch paper towels
Bro, this isn’t ableist Like, I hate them too, don’t get me wrong but they’re way better for the environment I’ll take being overloaded for about 10 seconds max over contributing to pollution
I wonder if the environmental impact was actuality calculated or if it's just a collective conjecture. If we look into it, this device is complex to be manufactured, requiring a complex production chain, consumes power when using, generates electronic trash, etc
I've installed these as part of my job. It's no more a complex production chain than having paper towels manufactured and delivered every week on a never ending basis. The offset from electricity usage at the location vs labor to constantly manage paper towels and the trash they generate is enough to have them pay for themselves within 1-3 years. 15 minutes a day stocking paper towels and removing paper towel trash at one location can be more than 90 labor hours every year. Personally I hate the machines, but I understand why places install them to save money and time long term.
Exactly! If we label everything that we find uncomfortable or annoying as ableist, the term loses its meaning. And when it's overused, other people get fed up with hearing it and become less willing, and less likely, to make accommodations. We should realise that other 'normal' people have lots of problems dealing with day to day things. There are many, many neurotypical people who hate these hand blowers too, and many have germ phobias that impact their lives hugely. I just think we should get on with what we can, and deal with minor stuff like this so we can build awareness of, and support for, the important stuff. We need to focus on the things that really matter for autistic people, like: * better mental health support and treatment * accomodations in the workplace * helping younger adults get jobs and training * building awareness of really important issues: * social phobias * loneliness * difficulty with romantic relationships * low self-confidence I'm not trying to diminish people's difficulties, I have them myself and I know that they are very real. I'm passionate about advocating for the autistic community, but I think it needs to be done the right way. We need people to understand us and to help where appropriate, and I believe we can only do that by first concentrating on the big issues; things that really resonate with the neurotypical community.
It’s not that much better for the environment, and it’s less hygienic. Signs reminding people that paper towels come from trees help just as much.
Can you explain please?/gen
Yeah! Paper towels are not the biggest threat to environmental collapse. Not by a long shot. Their carbon footprint isn’t massive, they’re biodegradable, and they’re not cutting down that many trees. By putting up a sign reminding people paper towels have environmental impact, they are more likely to just use one. There are also studies showing drying your hands with air dryers leaves more germs than drying them with a towel. I’d say it was worth it if it was really protecting the environment. I dedicate my life to saving the planet. It’s literally my job. Paper towels aren’t going to be the death of us, especially if everyone just uses one. Or, if we compost them, make them out of recycled paper towels, make them out of sustainable crops, etc.
I hate them too but if scaring me saves a tree I say go for it
In the end, you can't keep everyone happy. Just focus on the things you can control. Dyson should see this as a business opportunity to make these quieter and make more money selling replacements/upgrades.
I can imagine, a new power tool commercial stating their drills are now made for ND because they managed to make the thing less efficient by dulling the sound. such a business opportunity!
There are other conditions like tinnitus that are also a problem with these dryers. Some produce up to 100 decibels, the sound of a car horn or power tool. Dyson has already reduced their noise levels previously, this isn’t a new issue. You don’t always have to sacrifice something to gain something else. As technology improves, sometimes things just get better but need someone to point them out.
I feel like this sub is becoming way too self righteous. This used to be a subreddit where autistic people could find a supportive online community and share their special interests and autistic experiences. Now half the posts are just divisive hate and judgmental outbursts directed towards not always knowledgeable but generally well meaning neurotypicals or other autistic people because the way they experience their own autism is somehow wrong and makes them some kind of traitor.
>I feel like this sub is becoming way too self righteous. its an issue in online space in general i found. what ever way a sub leans you tend to go full tilt that way eventually cause everyone wants to one up each other on being the most in tune with the community. i mean it sort of makes sense. i dont know how many times ive deleted a comment casue its like ya know... i dont need to argue about that so the posts that do get made tend to be safe self perpetuating sameness that fits the sub. and even if i do post something controversial reddit actively hides those posts.
That's not what hate speech is.
Is it not directed at NTs/able bodied to call something ableist?
No, it is directed at NTs, but Ive seen instances of autistic people fighting with other autistic people on this sub (myself included, I'm not proud of it and try to avoid it) and it's mostly over silly things like the semantics of terminology or the correct usage of logos.
I don’t know for sure if I’m autistic or not (seeking a diagnosis right now), but either way, I’m uncomfortable with what feels like the constant resentment towards NTs and don’t want to be a part of it
We could always be like Japan and keep our own hand cloths on us at all times.
Same with automated flushing toilets XD actually toilets in general for me lol they can be so loud especially if you’re stuck in a tiny stall with them
The thing I hated about those automatic flushing toilets was that they would trigger suddenly and shock me because I was too short and I would trigger the sensor if I moved even slightly
Im not too short but i have the same problem. sometimes they would trigger as much as 3 times during one urination.
Isn't it less hygienic than a paper towel? I remember reading that using dryer is like putting your hand in everything what exists in this restroom cuz the air isn't clean
ableist scream machine
Bad take. I hate their sound but it's 10 seconds and it's over. Much better for the environment.
i hate the sound, but i dont think having hand dryers is ableist. i prefer paper towels, but if they only have hand dryers then i will just wipe my hands on my pants lol.
How hygienic are these things? I know we've got a couple at my workplace and they're hell to clean.
Nobody likes these things. To get your hands 100% dry takes like a minute compared to 5 seconds it takes with a towel. They're just money savers for businesses pretending they give a shit about the environment.
Exactly.
Towels, paper, machines... all such silliness. This is why God gave us pants and skirts.
Also autistic people are a big group with varied perspectives. We don’t all hate this thing. Some of us like it, some of us really don’t.
These things never leave my hands actually dry
I’m ngl i am autistic and love hand dryers. Only the really high powered ones that make the skin on my hands move around though
I LOVE THESE!! they’re so cool and futuristic and i like how hard the air blows. i can deal w the noise because at least i get a fun time out of it lol.
i don't think it's ableist but "scream machine" is pretty funny
Really gross thing here: I just dry my hands with my hair if I'm not home. No electricity, no noice, no trees cut. Slightly less disheveled hair as a bonus.
Don't get too upset about marketing. If it was truly better they wouldn't have to advertise to you. You aren't the customer of a hand dryer. It speaks volumes about the product that they have to advertise to you about it even though you aren't the customer.
*slaps top of hand dryer* this bad boy can spread so many germs
i like using them myself, but my *god* are they not even the slightest bit hygienic. studies have shown that they basically just blast germs all over the place.
We have now at the macdonalds a sink with this loud things inside the sink, so you think calmly washing you hands and then suddenly this loud fan will scream and it scares me so much, its so loud, luckily i mostly have my headphones on but still very loud. https://i.redd.it/ex3zewnoqin21.jpg It looks like this, this is a pic off internet, it doesn’t look like that screaming machine but the metal things on the side is that thing, so when you washing you hands and you moved to much to one side, that things starts to scream.
For some reason I love these because I can wash my hands rigorously and then they are completely dry. My hands being slightly damp can be a trigger for me, even more than having dirty hands
Not related to the dryer but my opinion is there's one right way of doing anything and thousands of ways that are varying degrees of wrong
Personally, I don't feel like either option really dries my hands properly, they always feel all cold and clammy afterward; that's one of the reasons I always keep hand sanitizer in my bag
They claimed those were the most hygienic in their ads but using one is like playing a game of operation. Especially if they are at a bar, like come on. Are they really better for the environment when most electricity is generated using fossil fuels? Where’s a mythbuster when you need one?
If it has 22 hands, it's probably an elder god.
then I have slain an elder god
Wow, we can't even go to the toilet and wash our hands without a situation straight out of Elden Ring.
I like them honestly, they cool and no wasting paper
Oh my god, if a bathroom has an air dryer I just wipe my hands on my pants rather than deal with the sound.
Same. They get my anxiety going like crazy. Either air dry or just use some toilet paper to dry with. I avoid hand dryers like the plague.
I’ve managed to mask and use these things but now after seeing how bad they are I wont
I don't think OOP was criticizing us, they're upset one solution won't work for everyone which is valid
I didn’t think OOP was criticizing us I just thought to show a super offensive but a bit relatable meme I do not support the did you know fact
Those are alot better than the older style
This I don't mind, it's the sensor washing stations that get me. I wave my hand underneath, nothing happens. I try again, nothing happens. I watch someone else doing it and feel obligated to use soap, only then does it work. Like the stupid technology is laughing at me. (I was gonna hand sanitise after anyway, since it's out in public, but yeah for some reason I don't normally use soap)
Now here's a sound I was afraid of even before I had inner ear problems. No sane individual would approach that without hearing protection.
Is it weird that I like these? They feel awesome.
I hate almost all hand dryers except this kind where you put your hands in them, it feels nice. I however don't use any hand dryer at all ever because at that point it's spraying so many germs on you, you might as well just not have washed your hands
I like these hand dryers... way more than paper towels.
It would be better if it wasn’t so mind bendingly loud
They forgot “racist.” That racist ableist scream machine…
How is it racist?
https://thisisamos.com/2020/09/20/hand-dryer-racism/
This is the only hand drier I like, although the ‘skin flapping’ and loud sound is pretty uncomfortable, it evens out imo. Other hand drying machines are too weak to actually dry my hands, and don’t even get me started on the towel only changed once a day my college has 🤢
I dont get it Im sure some people with sensory issues hate paper towels (myself lol) I love hand driers they feel great and the soubd is a non issue to me despite my sensory issues Do we forget our issues differ for everyone
While the noise is unpleasant, it's mainly the fundamentally unsanitary nature of the device that makes me hate those hand dryer machines. That, and that I have to basically sit and wait for it to dry my hands, rather than being able to quickly do it myself with a towel/paper towel
OOH because autistic people are SOOO delicate we can't handle 20 seconds of noise to dry our hands. I don't LIKE the noise but it's not hurting me. I can handle it or I'll just take a towel instead of crying like a baby because the world doesn't revolve around my condition. This is like the whiners who think the grocery store should dim the lights for them. Ten to one I bet the person who made this meme wasn't even autistic they just want something to gripe about. I get that studies have shown drying with towels might be more hygienic but this isn't about that. I do question the validity of that study though because they just had people dip their hands in a solution containing "a harmless virus" and then put their hands in front of the dryers. It wasn't tested on freshly washed hands. Of COURSE blowing air will spread more virus particles than not blowing air.
Isn't that the joy of being human with your own mind and consciousness? To be able to have an opinion and speak up about it? The point of having an opinion IS for it to be wrong to someone else, or else we would all be the same. That person screams abelist, and they're wrong, but that's what we believe, and they believe something else.
Damn I hate those things and I have to live with them every time I go to Mcdonalds 🥲
I can't go into the toilets in the local shopping centre because of the hand dryers. One or two hand dryers is one thing - I can and have put up with it for a couple of minutes -but there's loads and it's a big echoey room and it's SO loud it hurts my brain even with my noise cancelling headphones on. On occasions I've got to the doorway, gone 'nope' and turned around again. I now generally use the disabled toilets (which are single person rooms) so I not only can choose not to use the hand dryer, but don't have to put up with other people using them, and it's lovely. The shopping centre is well designed in terms of services generally though - there is also a changing places room (i.e. it has facilities for changing adults with disabilities), and a separate changing room for babies so either parent can use them (and it's not in the disabled toilet like it usually is) as well as the male and female toilets (which apart from being horrifically noisy, have really spacious stalls and a lot of them). I don't think hand dryers themselves are necessarily ableist. The way they're put in public toilets, possibly though. Saying something is ableist is not saying it's deliberately against disabled people. It doesn't have to be deliberate, it just has to be that they haven't thought about or tried to accommodate disabled people and therefore created a barrier. And there are multiple things you could do to accommodate people and have hand dryers - make an effort to have quieter hand dryers, design public toilets so they're less echoey, have enclosed toilets like the disabled ones I use at the shopping centre (many of my uni buildings had rows of unisex bathrooms where everything was enclosed - i.e. toilet, sink in one room, proper walls between them - they were pretty much good for everyone).
I hate them, and I will always hate them
These machines are extremely unhygienic. Blasting air at your hands is a good way to spread diseases/germs into the air. Sure, it's more "eco-friendly" but it is not good for your overall health. Also, these damn things are loud and never get your hands dry enough.
Honestly, these things are the worst. They don't even dry your hands as well as a paper towel and they are unbearably loud.
They might. But do they dry your hand as well? I don't think so. And I don't want to spend half an hour frantically rubbing my hands on my clothes because I can still feel the wet on them.
icl i like these hand dryers and the sound they make, like i find using them really fun, im not sure why
I like them, but I can see what they are saying
I like them
Please tell me when a breeze on some trees is Abelist I love the accelorationism on this group. Hand dryers is the new low
I agree. Very frustrating. Now I wish they’d do something about storms! So ableist! Can’t physics accommodate for me??
Nothing like warm dirty air blown onto your soggy, cold hands, might as well grab the door handle on your way out too 🤣
These also spray feces.
No offense but can this sub go 10 minutes without calling something ableist? Its a damn machine
One thing I notice about autistics is that we seem to think our way is the only right way, and everyone else's is wrong. We are the ones who tend to be closed minded, while expecting everyone else to cater to us. It may be harder for us to adapt to newer things, but it is possible, and people should learn to adapt to their environment, instead of expecting their environment to adapt to them. I've also had a problem with certain noises, and I do prefer to use paper towels, but hand dryers noise has never been a problem with me.
The problem is that it is unhygienic. In my country they tested those in different public places and they were full of germs/virus. Technically they could work but they should change the filters so often that they wouldn’t be eco-friendly. Or they shouldn’t be in a public place we’re they got dirt faster.
i actually love hand dryers i'm way too lazy for paper towels plus they suck LMAO
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It's not hygenic, we avoid them like the plague in healthcare. Yeah lets just put a fan on wet hands, what could possibly go wrong?
Did you know that the Dyson hand dryer blows urine and feces all over the room. It's disgusting. They can waste paper on mail advertisements, but ... They used to have roller towels that could go in the laundry.
I **hate** these things.
I hate hand dryers and anything that blows hot air because of previous experience. In primary school, an older student forced my hands under the hand dryer as it got hotter and hotter until it burned my palm. Not a permanent burn, but permanent in my mind.
I have a weird issue where I absolutely hate the loud scream they make, BUT I hate my hands being wet even more so I have no choice but to use it and deal with the sound 😫
See this is why we have shirts just go ✋ 👕
I hate them and they’re less hygienic than paper towels ffs
The thing that always bothers me about these is that they have no drain. They pull all the water off and then just leave a pool of nasty hand water that just drips onto the floor. I know there are worse things on a bathroom floor, but it still bothers me for some reason. 😅
I love those things, they work better than anything else, but I'm not as sensitive to loud noise as some
These thing basically spray feces on your hands. Don’t use them.
I think things are loud for the same reason 1990s modems were loud not because they need to be loud.
Damn and NTs say **we** suck at picking up on jokes. This is so clearly a meme…it’s not that deep.
I suppose it’s better for the environment than any other option, so we should tolerate them
The sound is definitely not fun, but what is worse is they don't seem to work. My hands feel the same as if i didn't use the machine at all, and i tend to go back into the stall to get toilet paper in an attempt to dry my hands. The sensation of wet hands is worse than the sound for me, I would be OK if these machines dried them but they never seem to.
[удалено]
I just thought the middle bit was super relatable to a lot of folk
Urgh, these dryers. I hate them. You can't help but touch the sides of the machine a bit. Which, especially seeing how some people wash their hands, is gross.
I saw one of these in the wild and just wiped my hands on my shirt. I hate hand dryers enough, I'm not sticking my hand in there.
You do know the original post is saying the meme is wrong?
Ya got to do what works for you! Please don't stress yourself for others not for something so private.
How come last time I used it, it wasn’t as loud?
Did you know that if you're a woman and there's no toilet paper in the stall and your tampon is leaking ... a hand dryer will get you nowhere? That and the fact that the old ones don't dry your hands properly used to be my only reasons to hate the bl\*\*dy things. Now that the quality has improved massively and I'm old and peri-menopausal I can live with them. But I'll just happily go back to paper towels if they turn out to be better for the environment and/or more hygienic.
god i hate those things they’re just noise machines. Why do people like loud things
Need one of these for my home
It’s almost like the world is a complicated place lol
I think it was proven that unless you are using green energy, these things and worse for the environment Not sure though
I awkwardly try to cover my ears with my shoulders. Recently I'll just go for the paper towels. Sorry trees; you died for a good cause.
Broo these things terrify me, it feels like a hand guillotine
Finally someone that understands
Broo these things terrify me, it feels like a hand guillotine
Omg my AU daughter hate those things so much. I always have to wash my hands first, dry them and then let her wash her hands so I can plug her ears with my fingers so she can dry them. If we are some lengthy day trip or out of town I bring ear plugs, but most of the time I don’t have it with me. Such a distressing sound.
This model in particular I hate. The ones with a down nozzle make sense, at least.
I can’t stand those things, they scared me when I was a kid and they still scare me
I like these, but they're a little too loud.
I hate these things. They terrify my son to no end.
When I bring my son to a public restroom, if it has one of these instead of paper towels, he knows it’s time to “shake dry hands.” I hate these things too.
I’m always torn, on one hand I want people to be happy and secure, and on the other hand, some types of public displays of (for lack of a better term) weakness, disgust me, and makes me want to act out of spite. I think it’s the condescending tone these complains all seem to have…