When it comes to hygiene, washing your hands properly with soap and clean water is crucial, but drying them thoroughly is just as important. In fact, it plays a major role in preventing the spread of harmful bacteria and viruses in your workplace, home, and public spaces. The importance of hand drying cannot be overstated as it’s a critical final step in good hand hygiene practices.
In this blog, we’ll explain why hand drying is a vital part of hand hygiene, the science behind it, and how to choose the best drying solution for your environment — whether you’re in healthcare, hospitality, retail, or an office.
The History of Hand Hygiene — And Why It Still Matters Today
Hand hygiene has been a frontline defence against infection since 1847, when Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis dramatically reduced maternal mortality rates by introducing handwashing protocols in hospitals. Fast forward to today, and hand hygiene remains one of the easiest and most effective ways to prevent the spread of germs, especially in healthcare, food production, retail, and public-facing environments.
Post-COVID-19, South African businesses have become even more aware of hygiene expectations — not just washing hands, but also ensuring proper hand drying to minimise infection risk.
In the healthcare and food manufacturing and retail sectors, hand hygiene has always been a high priority (gloves on or gloves off is always a burning question), but post-pandemic employees’ and consumers’ perceptions of hygiene (and, accordingly, their expectations) have also shifted.
Post-pandemic, we hope that all businesses are aware of the need to have suitable facilities for hand washing and drying to ensure they minimise the spread of infections. But while the act of washing with soap and water has received most of the attention in hand hygiene communication, not as much has been said about the importance of hand drying as a crucial part of good hygiene protocols.
Below are the top 4 reasons why drying your hands is such an important step in the process of maintaining excellent hand hygiene – and preventing transmission of infections. Proper hand drying:
1. Reduces the number of infectious microorganisms
Did you know that drying hands reduces the transfer of microorganisms to different surfaces by 94–99.8%?
Microorganisms play an important role in skin health. Skin carries beneficial, harmless, and unwanted microbes, which are classified into two types: resident and transient flora.
The resident flora is permanent and inhabits the outer and surface layers of the skin. These quickly recolonise the skin surface after washing, and can include infectious species such as Staphylococcus aureus, which infects wounds and causes diarrheal disease when transmitted to food.
The transient flora only colonises the superficial layers of the skin and is picked up from contact with contaminated sources such as surfaces and liquids. These include the gut, nose, mouth and other parts of the body, as well as all the objects we touch in our daily lives. They survive on the skin, but do not usually multiply because the environment is too harsh – unless hands are wet!
These transient microbes (both good and bad) are removed by proper hand washing and drying, protecting both ourselves from transmitting the transient flora to our mouth, nose or eyes, and others – by preventing transmission to the multitude of surfaces that people touch.
However, even if this reduces the quantity by a factor of 10,000, there may be enough of some pathogens remaining to cause an infection – Norovirus only requires around 10 particles to be infectious and SARS-CoV-2 between 300 and 2000.
Wet hands provide microorganisms with a hospitable environment in which to survive and thrive. Wet hands have a far higher number of microorganisms on the skin than dry hands – and are more effective at transferring them to touched surfaces. Drying hands reduces the translocation of microorganisms to different surfaces, including food, by 94–99.8%.
2. Prevents re-contamination of the hands
Providing effective and attractive hand drying facilities that encourage people to dry their hands properly helps prevent people from drying their hands on their clothes, or walking away with wet hands. Touching surfaces with wet hands increases the number of microorganisms that hands pick up.
A study of hand hygiene behaviour in Hong Kong found about 40% of the general public used their own clothing to dry their hands some of the time. (I’ll just wipe my hands on my pants …)
This could recontaminate hands with any dirt or microorganisms their clothes may have picked up from the environment, or the bathroom itself (the toilet sneeze effect!)
3. Is more comfortable
Wet hands feel uncomfortable, so the natural reaction is to want to dry them. Businesses should offer customers and employees a method of hand drying that’s most suitable for their situation and that people are comfortable using.
Paper towel is quick and effective but often leave a bathroom untidy if not disposed of properly, while hot air dryers take a longer time to dry and jet blade dryers dry quickly but can be noisy.
Introducing Luna Dry
Initial Hygiene South Africa offers an innovative, hygienic, and efficient hand drying solution with the Luna Dry hand dryer. Designed to meet the growing demands for better hygiene and sustainability in the workplace, Luna Dry is changing the game for modern washrooms.
One of its standout features is its ultra-fast 12-second dry time, making it one of the quickest options on the market. It’s also Quiet Mark certified, meaning it operates with impressively low noise levels. It is ideal for offices, healthcare environments, and hospitality spaces where noise control matters.
What really sets Luna Dry apart is its built-in HEPA filter, which removes 99.97% of airborne particles, ensuring that every dry is as clean and hygienic as possible. This makes it a particularly smart choice in settings where air quality and infection control are top priorities.
Its sleek, modern design complements any washroom environment, providing a premium feel without compromising on practicality. Luna Dry isn’t just a stylish upgrade, it’s also an eco-friendly solution, helping businesses reduce paper waste while improving hygiene standards.
If your business is looking for a faster, quieter, and more sustainable way to manage hand drying, Luna Dry is a smart investment.
4. Removes more dirt
Washing your hands properly with soap (properly means for at least 20 seconds and making sure you include the tops of your hands, thumbs etc) and then rinsing the soap and dirt away, should remove the vast majority of dirt from the skin surface.
However, if you didn’t wash properly – or the dirt is particularly stubborn or difficult to dissolve – there will be some remaining after washing. The friction from rubbing your hands with paper towel can help remove this stubborn dirt after washing — and also the remaining microorganisms.
This is one of the main reasons why paper towel companies are so quick to claim that hand drying with paper is superior to drying with a hand dryer. We investigate this further in our blog: paper vs dryers – which is more hygienic.
How to choose the best hand-drying solution
Hand drying is an essential part of hand hygiene. There are hand drying options for businesses, and each organisation should consider the best one for their situation: paper towels or electric hand dryers – as each comes with advantages and disadvantages.
When considering which drying method to select, factors to consider include:
- costs for hardware, installation and maintenance
- hand drying efficiency – speed of drying
- comfort in use, including noise
- preferences of users
- sustainability, including energy and raw materials used
- dispersal of microorganisms during use
We discuss all of these pros and cons in detail in our blog post: Hand dryers vs paper: which are better? And if you do decide to come down on the side of dryers (instead of paper) we have a guide to 7 things to consider before buying a hand dryer.
Within each hand drying method there can be wide variations, so making the best choice for your business environment can be complicated. That’s why the experts at Initial are here to guide you to make the right choice.
Contact us today for a free survey and advice on the best hand drying solution for your business.
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