List of Publications reviewed during Expert Panel Meeting on Hygienic Hand Drying on 20 March 2013 at the University of Leuven.
NOTE: The publications dated after 2013 were assessed during later panel meetings and the Consensus Statement updated when new evidence warranted revision.
Introduction to ETS: See: https://europeantissue.com/
General literature on hand washing and drying
- Bloomfield, Aiello, Cookson, Boyle & Larson, “The Effectiveness of Hand Hygiene Procedures in Reducing the Risks of Infections in Home and Community Settings Including Handwashing and Alcohol-based Hand Sanitizers,” Am. J. Infect. Control 35 (2007), S27-64.
http://www.ajicjournal.org/article/S0196-6553(07)00595-0/abstract - Gould, “The Significance of Hand-Drying in the Prevention of Infection,” Nursing Times, 90(47) (November 23, 1994);
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7800517 - Patrick, Findon & Miller, “Residual Moisture Determines the Level of Touch-Contact Associated Bacteria Transfer Following Hand Washing,” Epidemiology & Infection 119( 3) (1997),319-325. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2809004/
- Yamamoto, Ugai & Takashashi, “Efficiency of Hand Drying for Removing Bacteria from Washed Hands: Comparison of Paper Towel Drying with Warm Air Drying” Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, 316 (March 2005);
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/502546 - Evaluation of bacterial contaminants found on unused paper towels and possible post contamination after Handwashing: A pilot study. Louis McCusky Gendron BSc, Luc Trudel BSc, Sylvain Moineau PhD, Caroline Duchaine PhD. American Journal of Infection Control – (2011) e1-e5
http://www.ajicjournal.org/article/S0196-6553(11)00967-9/abstract - The Hygienic Efficacy of Different Hand-Drying Methods: A Review of the Evidence. Cunrui Huang, MMed, MSPH; Wenjun Ma, MD, MPH; and Susan Stack, BBus Mayo Clin Proc. 2012;87(8):791-798 Mayo-Clinic-The-Hygienic-Efficacy-of-Different-Hand-Drying-Methods.pdf
http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(12)00393-X/fulltext
Industry studies
- Study of the Consumers’ Attitudes to Different Hand-drying Systems for European Tissue Symposium June 2008 by INTERMETRA
https://europeantissue.com/about-tissue/away-from-home/properties-of-tissue/user-preference/ - TUV Produkt und Umwelt GmbH, Report No. 425-452006 Concerning a Study Conducted with Regard to the Different Methods Used for Drying Hands (September 2005) (Study requested by the German Pulp and Paper Association (VdP).
https://europeantissue.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/090410-TÜV-Study-of-different-methods-used-for-drying-hands-Sept-2005.pdf - TÜV Rheinland LGA Products GmbH Report No. 3026520 on the completion of a comparative study on hand drying with paper towels and high speed air flow hand driers August 2011 (Study requested by the German Pulp and Paper Association (VdP).
https://europeantissue.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/3.-IndStudy-Final-report-hand-drying-high-speed-aor-stream-vs-tissue-by-TUV-Rheinland-08-2011.pdf - HAND DRYING: AN ASSESSMENT OF EFFICIENCY AND HYGIENE OF DIFFERENT METHODS A SURVEY CARRIED OUT BY THE APPLIED ECOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP, UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER FOR THE ASSOCIATION OF MAKERS OF SOFT TISSUE PAPERS 26 JULY 1993.
https://europeantissue.com/wp-content/uploads/4.-IndStudy-AMSTP-study-1993-UoWM.pdf - HAND DRYING: A STUDY OF BACTERIAL TYPES ASSOCIATED WITH DIFFERENT HAND DRYING METHODS AND WITH HOT AIR DRIERS Keith Redway, Brian Knights, Zoltan Bozoky, Abigail Theobald and Sophie Hardcastle THE APPLIED ECOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP, UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER, The Association of Makers of Soft Tissue Papers January 1994.
https://europeantissue.com/wp-content/uploads/5.-IndStudy-AMSTP-study-1994-UoWM.pdf - Keith Redway and Brian Knights, Hand Drying: Studies of the Hygiene and Efficiency of Different Hand Drying Methods, Summary of Hand Drying Studies University of Westminster (October 1998).
https://europeantissue.com/pdfs/090402-2008%20WUS%20Westminster%20University%20hygiene%20study,%20nov2008.pdf - A comparative study of four different hand drying methods: paper towel, continuous roller towel, warm air dryer, jet air dryer. Keith Redway & Shameem Fawdar, School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London. 2010
https://europeantissue.com/wp-content/uploads/WU-Study-2010-Report.pdf - The potential for the transmission of contamination on the hands by different hand-drying devices Keith Redway, Sheila Azouji & Luisa Pitzulu, Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London. November 2012
https://europeantissue.com/hygiene/studies/comparison-of-different-hand-drying-methods-the-potential-for-airborne-microbe-dispersal-and-contamination/ - Snelling, Saville, Stevens & Beggs, “Comparative evaluation of the hygienic efficacy of an ultra-rapid hand dryer vs. conventional warm air hand dryers,” Journal of Applied Microbiology(2010);
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3017747/ - Confidential Kimberly-Clark Interpretive Report 35101 – shows contact of users hand with the inside of jet air driers during use.
- Eurofins 2012 study: Protocol used, summary of test results (Excel spread sheet), statistical analysis and review of results by Professor Mark Wilcox –
https://europeantissue.com/hygiene/studies/eurofins-inlab-study/ - Microbiological comparison of hand drying methods: the potential for contamination of the environment, user and bystander (University of Leeds peer reviewed study 2014) https://europeantissue.com/hygiene/studies/potential-for-contamination-of-the-environment-study-2014/
- Comparison of different hand drying methods the potential for airborne microbe dispersal and contamination (University of Westminster peer reviewed study 2015) https://europeantissue.com/hygiene/studies/
- Evaluation of the potential for virus dispersal during hand drying: a comparison of three methods P.T. Kimmitt and K.F. Redway. Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Westminster, London, UK. Journal of Applied Microbiology 120, 478–486 © 2015 The Society for Applied Microbiology. https://europeantissue.com/hygiene/studies/hand-dryingsingleuse-towels/
- Environmental contamination by bacteria in hospital washrooms according to hand-drying method: a multicentre study (University of Leeds peer reviewed study 2018) https://europeantissue.com/hygiene/studies/multisite-hospital-study/
- Deposition of Bacteria and Bacterial Spores by Bathroom Hot Air Hand Dryers (University of Connecticut,Feb.2018) https://europeantissue.com/hygiene/studies/
- An extensive observational study at ISSA/Interclean 2016 confirms that the vast majority of Users prefer Paper Towels to Jet Air Dryers https://europeantissue.com/about-tissue/away-from-home/properties-of-tissue/user-preference-observational-study-issainterclean-amsterdam-2016
Once you have reached the page, please click on “free download”, an email will open, send it after having written in the subject: “send hygiene”, and you will automatically be mailed the study by return email.
Hand drying Guidance
- WHO Poster on Hand Hygiene to Prevent Flu, available on the Internet at
http://www.who.int/gpsc/clean_hands_protection/en/index.html - European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Personal Protective Measures (Non-pharmaceutical) for Reducing the Risk of Acquiring or Transmitting Human Influenza, available on the Internet at
http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/healthtopics/spotlight/spotlight_influenza/key_message_3/Pages/personal_protective_measures_seasonal_influenza_spotlight.aspx - World Health Organization, WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care, First Global Patient Safety Challenge Clean Care is Safer Care (2009).
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2009/9789241597906_eng.pdf - European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Personal Protective Measures (Non-Pharmaceutical) for Reducing the Risk of Acquiring or Transmitting Human Influenza, and other topics, available on the Internet at
http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/healthtopics/spotlight/spotlight_influenza/key_message_3/Pages/personal_protective_measures_seasonal_influenza_spotlight.aspx
http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/healthtopics/escherichia_coli/prevention_measures/pages/prevention_measures.aspx
http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/healthtopics/pandemic_preparedness/public_health_measures/Pages/public_health_measures.aspx
http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/healthtopics/spotlight/spotlight_influenza/key_message_3/pages/personal_protective_measures_seasonal_influenza_spotlight.aspx
- Summary of Various Bodies’ Official Recommendations On Hand Drying: Paper Towels, Cloth Towels and Electric Hand Dryers prepared for ETS by Covington and Burling – October 2011.
Note that this covers advice that is positive for the use of paper hand towels and does not include those countries that fail to give advice on hand drying.
https://europeantissue.com/wp-content/uploads/5.-HDGuidance-ETS-Official-Recommendations-paper-towels-3.pdf - Personnel and personal hygiene – issued by the Campden BRI.
www.campdenbri.co.uk/food-hygiene-services.php - New guidance on hand hygiene: hand washing, published by the National Services Scotland (NHS), indicates that the use of electric hand dryers as a method of hand drying in is NOT recommended in the clinical setting, because a degree of risk has been identified relating to their use. Based on the identified evidence, it is recommended that soft, absorbent, disposable paper towels are used across NHS Scotland for hand drying following hand washing in the healthcare environment. https://europeantissue.com/hygiene/official-recommendations/nhs-scotland-hand-washing-infection-control/
- New guidance on hand hygiene published by the French Society for Hospital Hygiene, SF2H, strongly discourages the use of electric hand dryers as a method of hand drying in hospital washrooms, and recommends instead the use of single use paper towels as the most effective way to dry hands and minimise the spread of infection following a visit to the washroom. https://europeantissue.com/hygiene/official-recommendations/sfh2-guideline/
