The idea behind hand dryers in public bathrooms was that they were supposed to be more sanitary than paper towels, but a new study shows they're anything but: in fact, they spray particles of poop all over you.
So says a new report published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
As the dryers do their thing, they suck up air from around them -- which means aerosolized particles of feces that have been blasted in the air by the flushing of usually lidless public restroom toilets hitch a ride, and fire onto your wet hands and everything else at gale-force speed.
Researchers Luz del Carmen Huesca-Espitia, Jaber Aslanzadeh, Richard Feinn, Gabrielle Joseph, Thomas S. Murray, and Peter Setlow agreed that more testing needed to be done on the machines themselves, to see if they house colonies of bacteria that could also spit out on you.
Maybe it's just best to wash your hands well after using the bathroom, and follow Taylor Swift's advice and just shake it off.