TikTok viewers shocked by viral hand dryer experiment

‘Thanks for this! Air drying it will be’

TikTok users have sworn off using hand dryers after a video on the platform revealed just how unhygienic they can be.

In the video posted by user @itsgoneviral, which has been viewed over 67,900 times, he attempts to see which option is less “germy”: shaking his hands dry or using a hand dryer.

To find this out, he uses two petri dishes and shakes one around in the air to simulate drying your hands by shaking them, and he places the other under a hand dryer.

He said he went to a “couple more” locations to solidify his findings and then popped all of the petri dishes in an incubator to grow.

Three days later he inspected the dishes and found that on the one where he simulated air hand-drying there is no visible growth.

However, for the hand dryer used at the same location, it is covered in mould spores and other “nasty stuff”.

He showed four different results from hand dryers, and each of them had mould spores growing on them.

“Based on this test, it looks like waving your hand dry is the best option,” he concluded.

Users were quick to comment on the video, with one person writing: “Thanks for that! Air drying it will be.”

Another added: “This is why I don’t use hand dryers.” While a third said: “Had no idea. Never again.”