Comment

摘要

Right at the start of the current pandemic one main message was pushed above all others - hand hygiene. Washing with warm water and soap for twenty seconds was seen as the biggest single method of preventing infection; failing that, use of alcohol-based hand sanitiser was a secondary measure. What the initial guidance did not mention was the corollary to hand washing - hand drying. This is a subject we have covered a number of times in the pages of Paper Technology International, and it is worth reviewing what has been printed previously. In this it is important to acknowledge the work of ETS - The European Tissue Symposium - who has funded a number of research studies over the last decade aimed at highlighting differences between various methods of hand drying systems. These are important because hand washing with soap never removes all microbes from the hands; some will remain, and if hands are not dried, then the microbes can transfer to any surfaces touched with wet hands via the liquid water. This is why hand drying is just as important as hand washing.