Coronavirus pandemic is changing everything from daily life to behavior and reactions towards different things. Ever since this new virus is here, health awareness is trending. Public hygiene is also a part of the common public’s concern and a recent survey reveals that people are hesitant to use air dryers in public toilets for the fear of getting coronavirus.
This survey by Tork®, which is an Essity brand finds that every 8 out of 10 people are fearful of using a public toilet. And they were never this conscious before this coronavirus pandemic.
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Additionally, 1/3rd of these people find it extremely unsafe when they see air dryers in public toilets. As to them, they might contain coronavirus and transmit it to everyone who uses them.
The public is now demanding more safe public areas and better hygiene, especially in public restrooms. These hygiene measures should be much more better and serious now as there is a high chance to get any type of infection from these public areas.
The study by Tork projects the effects of COVID-19 on public perception of hygiene. More than 86% of these participants believe that using a dirty public restroom is a big challenge for health.
This uncertainty of health safety related to public toilets is directly related to hand drying techniques. Most people no more prefer using a hand dryer especially when they are fit in a public set up.
Nearly 70% of these participants wish to have paper towels in place of air dryers. And 33% of them prefer using a paper towel for drying their hands. These people find them better and more hygienic than the typical electric hand dryers.
The reason behind choosing this paper hand towels is that they are potentially more hygienic, faster, and don’t involve in transmitting the infection as much as dryers.
Surprisingly, the facility of making the hand towels available could be more expensive than electric air dryers. They are used and wasted high.
In addition to this, the availability of paper hand towels also impacts the visitors. Nearly 40% of people believe that they would not go to any place which doesn’t have any paper towels. In fact, 33% of participants believe that they would rather feel ‘unsafe’ to see air dryers in public toilets.
Alberto Cajiga serves as the Marketing’s vice chair of Essity. He says that probably this pandemic is the right time to set new public hygienic standards. While many people prefer using air dryers and not hand towels before the introduction of coronavirus, this trend is now changing.
Cajiga reported a high increase in demand for paper hand towels. It suggests that air dryers in public toilets are not enough for hygiene.
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Areas that are critical for public health and safety such as factories, hospitals, and malls are using paper hand towels for a long time already. There is a dire need to understand that unlike disposable paper towels, these dryers in public toilets contain airborne particles and droplets. It increases the risk of transmitting bacteria and viruses to the next users. On the other side, when a person dries hands with paper, the risk of getting the bacteria and virus eventually reduces because of friction.
Due to coronavirus, the public areas are marked as the most critical areas responsible for coronavirus spread. The new hygiene measures are under discussions and using the good old hand paper towels is one of them.
Survey details
These results are based on a survey organized by United Minds and CINT between April 8th to April 13th, 2020. It included 1,012 adult US nationals as participants.
