警惕！烘手器其實在噴細菌

If you're a germophobe who wants to use a public bathroom ever again, you might want to stop reading this.

如果你有潔癖，而且平時需要使用公共衛生間，可能這篇文章你根本讀不下去。

Because it turns out, while bathroom hand dryers can be more environmental than paper towels, they can also be a whirlpool of faecal matter.

因爲事實是，雖然衛生間的烘手器比紙巾更環保，但它同時也會噴出污物。

You might not know it, but when someone flushes an open toilet, little bits of poop and bacteria can be thrown as high as 15 feet (4.5 metres) into the air.

你或許不知道，在沖廁所時，如果沒蓋馬桶蓋，那麼會有少量排泄物和細菌被衝到15英尺（約合4.5米）的高空。

As if that's not gross enough, now a new study has found that those little bits of poop and bacteria can be sucked up by warm hand dryers and blown straight onto your freshly washed hands.

這還不夠噁心，如今一項新研究發現，這些從馬桶衝到空中的排泄物和細菌會被溫暖的烘手器吸收，然後再直直地吹向你剛剛洗過的雙手。

Researchers at the University of Connecticut began their study by placing petri dishes under various bathroom hand dryers around the school. Then, the team sat down to analyse the results.

康涅狄格大學的研究人員在學校多個衛生間的烘手器下方放置了培養皿，然後對結果進行分析。

While the plates that were exposed to normal bathroom air had about one bacterial colony present, the samples that were exposed to 30 seconds of hand dryer air had 18 to 60 bacterial colonies per plate.

暴露在普通衛生間空氣中的培養皿裏有1個菌落，而在烘手器吹出的風中待30秒的培養皿裏則有18-60個菌落。

The researchers concluded that "many kinds of bacteria, including potential pathogens and spores, can be deposited on hands exposed to bathroom hand dryers."

研究人員得出結論稱“烘手器會將多種細菌吹到人們手上，包括潛在的病原體和芽孢。”

"The more air ya move? The more bacteria stick," lead author Peter Setlow explained to Business Insider.

研究報告的主要作者彼得-塞特洛對商業內幕網說：“吹的風越多，沾在手上的細菌也越多。”

"And there are a lot of bacteria in bathrooms."

“衛生間裏有很多細菌。”

The results are so yuck that Setlow himself has officially sworn off hand dryers. And now, the University of Connecticut offers paper towels as a hand dryer alternative.

研究結論太令人作嘔，塞特洛自己都正式棄用烘手器了。如今，康涅狄格大學在衛生間裏提供紙巾，代替烘手器。

Still, the average person doesn't need to freak out just yet. Setlow says that even though people who suffer from weak immune systems, like seniors, should avoid using hand dryers, the rest of us can probably handle it.

不過，普通人也無需過於擔心。塞特洛表示，儘管老年人等免疫系統薄弱的人應該避免使用烘手器，其他人基本上不會有大礙。

Besides – just because hand dryers churn out a ton of bacteria, doesn't mean that bacteria is necessarily bad for you. After all, fungi, bacteria and other microbes are absolutely everywhere you go, and the vast majority of this menagerie doesn't make you sick.

此外，雖然烘手器會噴出大量細菌，但這些細菌也未必對身體有害。畢竟，真菌、細菌和其他微生物幾乎無處不在，而其中絕大部分都不會致病。

Plus, exposure to bacteria is an important part of building up your immune system so that you can live a long and healthy life.

另外，接觸細菌有助於增強免疫系統，讓自己健康長壽。

And yes, while previous studies have found that bathroom hand dryers have the potential to spread diseases, the chances of this happening are not drastically higher because you're in a bathroom.

雖然曾有研究表明，衛生間烘手器可能會傳播疾病，但這種狀況的發生概率並不因身處衛生間而大幅升高。

"The restroom isn't that dangerous," Jack Gilbert, a microbiologist at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, told Live Science back in 2016.

美國伊利諾斯州阿貢國家實驗室的微生物學家傑克-吉爾伯特曾在2016年對生活科學網站說：“衛生間沒有那麼危險。”

"The organisms which can grow there have a very low probability of being able to cause an infection."

“在衛生間裏滋生的有機體導致感染的概率非常低。”

Nor is it completely clear if paper towels are a better alternative.

此外，研究人員尚不確定紙巾是不是更好的選擇。

While some past studies have found that paper towels are more sanitary, other independent studies have found no significant difference between the bacterial colonies bestowed by paper towels and those bestowed by hand dryers.

此前一些研究表明，紙巾更加衛生；但也有其他的獨立研究表明，紙巾傳播的菌落和烘手器傳播的菌落不存在顯著差異。

But if the thought of this study is still disturbing you, take comfort in this: Setlow and his team also found that retrofitting hand dryers with HEPA air filters reduced bacterial colonies four times over.

如果這還令你困擾，那再來看看這個：塞特洛和他的研究團隊發現，在烘手器中加裝高效空氣過濾器能夠將菌落數量減少至四分之一。

"Our obsession with overt sterilisation and cleanliness, our paranoia, is just not helpful," Gilbert told Live Science.

吉爾伯特告訴生活科學網站說：“我們對無菌和清潔的過分癡迷是一種偏執，這沒有什麼用。”

So whatever you do, just try to remember: regardless of how you dry your hands, you're bound to gather some bacteria one way or another.

所以無論你做什麼，都要記住：無論烘乾或擦乾，你的手上總會沾上一些細菌。

And that's the gross truth.

這就是全部事實。

The study was published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

這項研究發表在《應用環境微生物學》期刊上。