A WOMAN who claims to have grown fungus from the air produced by a toilet hand-drier has warned the public they should not be used.

A post by Nichole Ward from California, that has gone viral, says the fungus grew within a few days of placing a Petri dish into the hand-drier of a public toilet for three minutes.

Ms Ward, who claims to have some knowledge of microbiology, posted a picture of her 'experiment' and announced: "This is the several strains of possible pathogenic fungi and bacteria that you’re swirling around your hands, and you think you’re walking out with clean hands. #nomorehanddryers #outlaw #spreadthenews."

The dramatic results quickly captured the imagination of the online Facebook audience, and it has been shared over 350,000 times.

The Herald:

Companies such as Dyson, makers of the Airblade, have long complained about the paper towel industry sponsoring research into the hygiene implications of different hand-drying methods.

And Dyson said they were "very surprised" over the new results and had sought clarification from Ms Ward over the methodology employed.

A Dyson spokesman said: "In short, the Facebook post contains such limited information that it doesn’t prove anything and the conclusion that hand dryers shouldn’t be used is a big leap.

"We are taking this very seriously as there is insufficient evidence to reach this damaging conclusion.

"We have reached out to the poster to understand what methodology was used but not heard back yet.

"If the petri dish was simply placed inside the aperture of a hand dryer and left there for three minutes as the wording of the post suggests, then what has effectively happened is sampling of the washroom air and similar results would be expected if the plate was left out in the open anywhere else in the washroom for three minutes.

"All Dyson AirbladeTM hand dryers have HEPA filters that capture particles as small as bacteria from the washroom air before it leaves the machine. Dyson AirbladeTM hand dryers are proven hygienic by university research and are trusted by hospitals, food manufacturers and businesses worldwide."

Ms Ward claims it was her own experiment and denied claims that it was just "fake news".

"This is literally what grows once incubated. It’s the very contaminates that you’re drying your hands with but you cannot see with the naked eye until it’s incubated.

"From an outside perspective, a blow dryer makes sense. But the spores in the air of a bathroom are SERIOUS and this was obviously overlooked. So the enclosed [driers] are the worst. But not much worse as the older ones that you push the silver button and dry that way.

The Herald:

"Fungi spores are still swarming so either way, do not use them. Just wash with water and soap and leave with wet hands. Paper towels I think are still safe though.

Some raised concerns that we would be breathing in the contaminates when we go into a public bathroom.

Ms Ward said that that was "another can of worms" adding: "That's your discretion weather you enter public restrooms or not. Sometimes you can’t fight it but to answer your question, you’re definitely breathing those contaminants in.

"The mucous of our nostrils helps keep particles out from being fully inhaled. So if you keep your mouth closed, most likely you’ll never contract anything. Our hands however do not have a defense mechanism. So keep those away from the dryers."

The Herald:

A paper in the Journal of Applied Microbiology in 2016 concluded that Dyson Airblades spread 60 times more germs than standard air dryers, and 1,300 times more than standard paper towels.

But Dyson said at the time that this was “scaremongering” and that the research was “conducted under artificial conditions”.

The conditions were set up by researchers at the University of Westminster, who took an innocuous virus, MS2, put it on their wet hands, then created a target 40cm away.

Dyson's video on how the Airblade dB hand-drier works

In 2005, a German Pulp and Paper Association-commissioned study showed that bacteria on skin was decreased by 24 per cent by wiping hands on paper towel, whereas using a standard air dryer increased the load by 117 per cent.

In 2008, Dyson became the first hand-dryer to be kite-marked by the Royal Society for Public Health, which noted that the Airblade filters 99.9 per cent of bacteria out of the air it ingests, dubbing it “a significant step forward in hand-dryer technology”.