Clean restrooms - another exercise in J-Image > Reality

[matsuki]

More and more of these reports about how hand dryers are basically

sucking in tiny pieces of shit and spraying them on you

and every thing in the restrooms. Even the HEPA filter ones aren't a good idea

They found that with or without a HEPA filter, the blowers stirred up potential pathogens, including Staphylococcus aureus.

https://boingboing.net/2018/04/07/dead- ... robes.html

http://aem.asm.org/content/84/8/e00044-18.abstract

Use that towel!

[Grumpy Gramps]

The late 'Mythbusters' had an episode about this. Confirmed towel better. But then this is Japan. Our shit is surely clean, all sakura no?

[Russell]

Well, as long as the shit doesn't hit the fan.

Oh wait...

[Takechanpoo]

already in 2014
https://www.thecut.com/2014/11/youll-ne ... cienceofus
https://gizmodo.com/this-is-how-hand-dr ... 1661717719
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 0114002461

and how is handdryer/jet towel necessarily related to japan? eh?
in my neighboring libraries, handdryers are already removed.

and and seems that even hand-free faucets are not cleaner than "normal" ones
https://newatlas.com/hands-free-faucets ... ter/18301/

[matsuki]

already in 2014
https://www.thecut.com/2014/11/youll-ne ... cienceofus
https://gizmodo.com/this-is-how-hand-dr ... 1661717719
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 0114002461

and how is handdryer/jet towel necessarily related to japan? eh?
in my neighboring libraries, handdryers are already removed.

In most restrooms here, there is nothing but hand dryers available...and they are the worst of the worst in terms of what these studies are reporting. No HEPA filter, not well cleaned or maintained, weak as fuck so you have guys standing there for quite a while until they give up and walk away with less wet hands. YET we are bombarded by PR of the superior cleanliness of Japanese restrooms. (when in reality, they likely have more bacterial all overall the surfaces thanks to these dryers being so widely adopted)

and and seems that even hand-free faucets are not cleaner than "normal" ones
https://newatlas.com/hands-free-faucets ... ter/18301/

Those too??

the researchers suspect that the complex valve components of the newer faucets offer more surface area and hiding places for bacteria, which remain present even after standard hospital water disinfection methods. Conventional faucets, on the other hand, have few internal parts.

...and you know most places don't even do regular cleaning. Hand sanitizer FTW?

[Grumpy Gramps]

and then you touch a door handle...

I often use the sleeve of my pullover as a glove, when I have to touch public handles (doors, escalators, elevator buttons, hanbaikis, pin-code terminals etc.). Yes, I am a sissy, I really should man up and just wear proctologist's gloves all day long

[Russell]

already in 2014
https://www.thecut.com/2014/11/youll-ne ... cienceofus
https://gizmodo.com/this-is-how-hand-dr ... 1661717719
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 0114002461

and how is handdryer/jet towel necessarily related to japan? eh?
in my neighboring libraries, handdryers are already removed.

In most restrooms here, there is nothing but hand dryers available...and they are the worst of the worst in terms of what these studies are reporting. No HEPA filter, not well cleaned or maintained, weak as fuck so you have guys standing there for quite a while until they give up and walk away with less wet hands. YET we are bombarded by PR of the superior cleanliness of Japanese restrooms. (when in reality, they likely have more bacterial all overall the surfaces thanks to these dryers being so widely adopted)

It appears that HEPA filters do not make much of a difference. And there is no evidence that the high-airflow types are any better than the low-airflow ones. I would even bet that the former are even worse, because they suck in much more air with shit particles.

Come to think of it, if just flushing toilets gives so much problems with the surrounding air, one wonders whether it is safe to even breath that air. Sounds like you need a bio-hazard mask just to do your thing...

[Mike Oxlong]

Ah, there was a movie some years back about an American company selling bathroom fixtures to the Japanese.

[legion]

and then you touch a door handle...

I often use the sleeve of my pullover as a glove, when I have to touch public handles (doors, escalators, elevator buttons, hanbaikis, pin-code terminals etc.). Yes, I am a sissy, I really should man up and just wear proctologist's gloves all day long

I use my handkerchief to dry my hands then keep it handy to open the door, just have to remember not to use it to wipe my nose later.

[matsuki]

It appears that HEPA filters do not make much of a difference. And there is no evidence that the high-airflow types are any better than the low-airflow ones. I would even bet that the former are even worse, because they suck in much more air with shit particles.

The full cycle goes like this: when you flush a toilet that doesn't have a lid, the turbulence of the flush sends fecal particles into the air, where they hover in a miasmic cloud; when the dryers switch on, they pull these particles in through their intake, heat them up, and spray them onto your moist hands and other moist, hospitable surfaces where their bacteria can thrive.

HEPA filters greatly reduce this mechanism.

The new study specifically focuses on lower-powered hand-dryers, which some people had believed were less prone to sucking in tiny pieces of shit and spraying them on you.

Seems like lids that auto close BEFORE flushing should be a bigger priority than those silly sound effects...

[Russell]

Today I went to the toilet in a 7Eleven and I initially hesitated to use the hand drier, but then I noticed that it was outside the toilet room.

So, yes, that is it. Make a airtight separation between the toilet and the hand dryer.

[Grumpy Gramps]

Could run a small fan inside the toilet bowl that creates a slight vacuum and pulls the germs out of the air and blows them down the sewage. A little like the small fans that run in the yakiniku grills and pull the smoke down. This would also help with the stench and in turbo mode, it might even help with benpi.

[matsuki]

Today I went to the toilet in a 7Eleven and I initially hesitated to use the hand drier, but then I noticed that it was outside the toilet room.

So, yes, that is it. Make a airtight separation between the toilet and the hand dryer.

Russel FTW! I like Grumpy's idea too but if you think about which is more feasible, a toilet only room works.