Gross Experiment Will Make You Never Want To Use Hand Dryers Again

This experiment shows just how gross hand dryers are

Prepare to have your mind blown and your gag reflex tested. One woman decided to run a little experiment to see how much bacteria is in hand dryers. Turns out, there’s A LOT. Like, a completely, horrifyingly disgusting amount. You and your children will become a paper towel family immediately after seeing this picture.

Hardcore apologies for any vomiting that just happened on your end.

Nichole Ward, on assignment for her microbiology professor, placed a petri dish under a hand dryer to see what sort of bacteria would form.

“This here, is what grew in a petri dish after just a few days,” Ward wrote. “I stuck the open plate in an enclosed hand dryer of a public bathroom for a total of 3 minutes. Yes 3 only. DO NOT EVER dry your hands in those things again. This is the several strains of possible pathogenic fungi and bacteria that you’re swirling around your hands, and you think you’re walking out with clean hands. You’re welcome.”

Her post has been shared more than 500,000 times, and garnered plenty of horrified responses. Pretty much everyone is staying far, far away from hand dryers from now on.

So, what are experts saying about this icky, icky picture? Women’s health expert Jennifer Wider, M.D. told Women’s Health Magazine that she found the petri dish experiment “pretty convincing.” She couldn’t be completely sure what exactly was growing, but suspected that it was E. coli (born from fecal matter) and fungi.

“Public bathrooms are filled with germs, and it isn’t surprising that the hand dryer could spread bacteria and other germs,” she said.

Back in 2016, ABC News led an investigation into Dyson hand dryers and asked a scientist at the Thomas Jefferson University to analyze their findings.

“I would not want to be placing my hands or a child’s hands in these particular dryers,” Dr. Amity Roberts concluded.

Oy. Let’s all just wipe our hands on our jeans and call it a day.