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Mr. Dickens
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking in conjunction with the chief medical officer of health to ascertain the extent of any health dangers associated with the use of warm air electric hand dryers in public conveniences.
Mr. Dorrell
The Department of Health has supported research at Papworth hospital into airborne bacteria from hand drying with hot air electric hand dryers compared with paper towels. The results showed that hot air hand dryers produced no more aerosol and sometimes significantly fewer aerosolised bacteria than paper hand towels. These results have been confirmed by studies in Singapore.