Did you see the Guardian newspaper's respected long read entitled 'Hand Dryers vs Paper Towels - The suprisingly dirty fight for the right to dry your hands.' It documents the ongoing struggle for commercial supremacy. Rather than the usual one sided PR aimed at whiping up sensationalised headlines and attracting clicks, the piece takes a serious look at the story behind the usual headlines. Written by Samanth Subramanian, a respected author and journalist featured previously in the Guardian and New York times, who has written on such heavyweight subjects as the Sri Lankian War and rise of Islamophobia, it provides balance and perspective which has so far been lacking from independent sources. Check out the long read article here
Industry bodies such as the eHA and companies like Dyson and Intelligent Hand Dryers have been battling against the paper towel industries negative PR machine for years. Unfortunately, its far easier to fear monger and stick negativity in peoples minds than it is to write well balanced pieces that require rational thinking and close attention. Many psychological studies will testify to humans basic preference to take shortcuts in their thinking rather than making the effort to think logically. This is a response to the abundance of messages we are exposed to in modern life and our need to filter out. A hand dryer is not interesting to people unless it is turned into a threat to your well-being, therefore a negative headline is less likely to be investigated and simply accepted.
The vast majority of us vote without really consulting a political parties manifesto, we are more likely to be convinced by a negative headline than investigating the truth, we simply don't have the time. So what chance does the message 'hand dryers are used by millions of people every day, an ever increasing amount and the main adopters like the UK and Japan have seen drops in workplace absentism during this period, modern hand dryers have been independently shown to be as fast and equally as hygienic as any other method if used properly and actually the scaremongering headlines are based on paper towel funded research that has to be really twisted to scare people, because the reality is that there is nothing to worry about!' No one will print that will they?
A really in depth look at the debate can be found in this article 'Are hand dryers hygienic?'
There is also a really simple and well delivered video and reality check from Dyson, The Truth about Hand Dryers!
