Just a COVID thing?

The University of Guelph replaced many hand dryers with paper towel dispensers during the COVID-19 period, being the years 2019-2022.

In each periods respective "Fact Book," the school notes that in response to COVID-19:

• “Custodial staff have ... replaced more than 400 hand dryers with paper towel dispensers” (Office of Institutional Analysis and Research, 2019).
• “Custodial staff have ... replaced more than 385 hand dryers with paper towel dispensers” (Office of Institutional Analysis and Research, 2020).
• “Custodial staff have ... replaced more than 1,344 hand dryers with paper towel dispensers” (Office of Institutional Analysis and Research, 2021).

These quotes clearly demonstrate that the school acknowledges paper towels as more sanitary than hand dryers. Do we not deserve proper hygiene just because COVID-19 isn't as prominent anymore?

Office of Institutional Analysis and Research. (2019). University of Guelph - Fact Book 2019-2020. Institutional Research and Planning. https://irp.uoguelph.ca/system/files/UofG-Fact-Book-2019-2020_DigiAccess_0.pdf
Office of Institutional Analysis and Research. (2020). University of Guelph - Fact Book 2020-2021. Institutional Research and Planning. https://irp.uoguelph.ca/system/files/UofG-Fact-Book-2020-2021_DigiAccess%20rev2.pdf
Office of Institutional Analysis and Research. (2021). Fact Book 2021-2022. Institutional Research and Planning. https://irp.uoguelph.ca/system/files/UofG-Fact-Book-2021-2022_DigiAccess.pdf

Hand dryer facts

Paper towels reduced bacertial load by 71%.
Hand dryers only reduced bacertial load by 23%.
Schwarcz, J. (2017, May 20). Hand dryers or Paper Towel? That is the question. Office for Science and Society. https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health/hand-dryers-or-paper-towel-question
48% of microbes found in retail hand dryers are linked to infections.
Detected 64 species: 24 bacterial, 40 fungal.
Ma J. J. (2021). Archives of environmental & occupational health, 76(1), 52–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/19338244.2020.1799183
Jet air dryers spread bacteria 27 times more than paper towels.
Air bacteria counts 4.5 times higher near jet air dryers.
Bacteria persists in air beyond 15 seconds hand-drying.
Leeds, U. of. (2014). https://www.leeds.ac.uk/news-health/news/article/3629/hand-dryers-can-spread-bacteria-in-public-toilets-research-finds
Petri dishes showed up to 254 colonies of bacteria with hot air exposure.
HEPA filters reduced bacteria by 75%.
Paper towels recommended for hygiene, especially in hospitals.
Ross, J. (2018). Harvard Health Blog. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-bacterial-horror-of-the-hot-air-hand-dryer-2018051113823
Paper towels reduce residual water to 4% after 10 seconds, 1% after 15 seconds.
Hot air dryers take 45 seconds to reduce residual water to 3%.
Paper towels reduce bacteria. Hot air dryers increase bacteria.
Cross-contamination: Hot air dryers spread bacteria within 3 feet. Paper towels don't.
Huang C, Ma W, Stack S. The hygienic efficacy of different hand-drying methods: a review of the evidence. Mayo Clin Proc. 2012 Aug;87(8):791-8. doi: 10.1016/j.mayocp.2012.02.019. Epub 2012 May 31. PMID: 22656243; PMCID: PMC3538484.
Found bacteria in hand dryers include:
• Staphylococcus haemolyticus (95% of dryers)
  • Causes severe infections, resistant to antibiotics.
• Micrococcus luteus
  • Generally non-pathogenic, but may cause infections in immunocompromised individuals.
• Pseudomonas alcaligenes
  • Causes infections, especially in those with weakened immune systems.
• Bacillus cereus
  • Common cause of food poisoning (basically norovirus), leading to vomiting and diarrhea.
• Brevundimonad diminuta/vesicularis
  • Opportunistic pathogen, causes respiratory and bloodstream infections.
Water droplets from air dryers extend to at least 2 meters.
High bacterial counts in air, max 14 cfu per plate.
Staphylococci and Micrococci found in 95% of air samples, Staphylococcus aureus in 56%.
Hot air dryers aerosolize bacteria more than paper towels. Paper towels decrease bacterial numbers.
Alharbi SA, Salmen SH, Chinnathambi A, Alharbi NS, Zayed ME, Al-Johny BO, Wainwright M. Assessment of the bacterial contamination of hand air dryer in washrooms. Saudi J Biol Sci. 2016 Mar;23(2):268-71. doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2015.06.020. Epub 2015 Jun 26. PMID: 26981009; PMCID: PMC4778580.

It is clear that there are ZERO hygenic advantages to using hand dryers over paper towels. The only advantages hand dryers bring, is the argument "that air drying can cut costs by as much as 99.5%" (Schwarcz, 2017). Clearly, the school only cares about profits, not us.

Only for the money

In this section, we will demonstrate how the University of Guelph eliminated paper towels as a cost-saving measure to boost their profits

Table 1 presents the university's total revenues for the years 2023 and 2024, providing a comparison between the two years.

Keep these two figures in mind:

• Found in Table 1: Supplies and Services totaled $100.5 million.
• Found in Table 2: Revenue less expenses, which can be considered as total profit for the year. Non-profits, like this university, do not classify such figures this way in accounting. This totaled $29.4 million. Therefore, the University of Guelph generated a total overall profit of $29.4 million in the fiscal year 2024 – profit clearly not in the interest of the students' health.

Duke University, established 1838 in Durham, North Carolina, United States, determined their paper towel expenses for the year.

For reference, the school had 16,686 students for the fall of 2024, compared to the approximately 31,000 students enrolled in 2022 at the University of Guelph.

The student specifically summed the costs of paper towels in the a buildings residence washrooms. We will consider this,

Table 3 showcases their paper towel expenses (at the bottom) and the estimated cost of hand dryers (top). Over a five-year period, the school would have spent USD $135,174.63 on paper towels compared to USD $38,958.85 if they switched to hand dryers (Table 3).

Our team does not care for the expenses of the school as long as the school still turns a profit, which ours clearly has (Table 2).

Let us estimate the University of Guelph’s expenses should they decide to return paper towels. We will continue calculations with the current (February 4th, 2025), but depressing, exchange rate of CAD $1.00 -> USD $0.70 (Bank of Canada, 2025).

Let the total Duke University paper towel expense be 8773.92+18250.00+1095.00. This will equal USD in our calculations, from which we convert below:

Therefore, we can deduce that the return of paper towels would only eat into 0.254% of the schools total profit.

Furthermore, we are being quite generous with this figure, as we include the expenses of cleaning and trash can liners in our calculations.

Important note: The slideshow provided is based on a complementing paper by Issokson, Savell, et al. (2019). In the mentioned report, the figure of $581,653.68 per year on paper towel expenditures comes from a personal communication with Smith, B (Associate Director, Residence Hall Operations) and Eaton, J (Senior Manager, Logistics and Program Support, Duke University Environmental Services). These roles appear unrelated to the budgets of supplies, and therefore we do not consider this a valid source. Based on this, we can safely assume that this information is not reliable.

Furthermore, the paper give a financial analysis on the true cost of paper towels, found in "Table 10: Cost analysis of paper towels and hand dryers over five years" (Issokson et al., 2019).

Issokson, M., Savell, R., Qiu, A., & Basmajian, K. (2019). Exploring Hand Drying Alternatives to Paper Towels (p. 3). https://sites.duke.edu/adhoc_energy__environment_/files/2020/04/Hand-Dryers-on-Campus-Final-Report.pdf

Bank of Canada. (2025, February 4). Currency Converter. Bankofcanada.ca. https://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/exchange/currency-converter/