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13-Year-Old Scientist's Research Shows Hand Dryers Can Hurt Kids' Ears
- wmeredith 7y ago“In response to these results, Dyson confirmed to NPR in an email that an acoustics engineer would be meeting with Nora to discuss her research. “ Good for them. And good for her. My son (4) hates these things. He dries his hands on his shirt instead.
- jrrrr 7y agoMine too.
- spankalee 7y agoMy 4.5 year old son will not let me use them. He'll throw an absolute fit if I try. I have a lot more sympathy for that now!
- lunchladydoris 7y agoMy son, now five, has hated them for years. He dries his hands on my shirt instead...
- zeta0134 7y ago> In response to these results, Dyson confirmed to NPR in an email that an acoustics engineer would be meeting with Nora to discuss her research. You go girl. Rock on! No matter what happens, what an awesome response from Dyson to look at this girl's well thought out research and go, "Huh. Yeah, we should probably give that a second pass."
- mrfusion 7y agoI’ve been suspicious of this for years. These things are incredibly loud and they’re right at ear level for kids.
- senectus1 7y agoMy 11yr old son has been complaining about them being way to loud for him for years as well... I think I own him an apology for not taking the complaint more seriously.
- klipt 7y agoThe modern world is full of loud noises that damage our hearing prematurely. Probably the worst culprits are headphones with the volume too high, and overly amplified concerts.
- Jonnax 7y agoEveryone should be using musician style earplugs at concerts. They're designed to as best uniformly attenuate the volume to safe levels. And in my opinion, a good pair always makes the music sound better. And I never leave with ringing in my ears Because it's no longer just a wall of noise.
- darkmighty 7y agoDo you have any purchase advice/recommendations?
- Fezzik 7y agoI personally use squishy foam-type ones at concerts (and when I played in a band) and find they make music sound better by isolating the individual components of the band. They are far from fancy, but I have not had ringing in my ears after a show since I started using them. I wish I had been smarter as a teen. See: https://www.amazon.com/Macks-Ultra-Soft-Foam-Earplugs/dp/B0051U7W32/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=foam+earplugs&qid=1562822145&s=gateway&sr=8-3 https://www.amazon.com/Macks-Ultra-Soft-Foam-Earplugs/dp/B00...
- schoen 7y agoPrevious discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20282837 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20282837
- Jonnax 7y agoI don't understand why they have to be so loud. I recently bought a Miele vacuum cleaner, and compared to other cheap vacuums I've had before. It's significantly quieter whilst still having effective suction. Is it cost cutting or is this the best kind of motors possible for hand dryers? As a side note: I wonder what the testing conditions are like for these dryers. Like there's one of the Xcellerator driers at my local bouldering place's toilet. It's a very small tilled room. I went once and the sound caused my ears to ring for hours. I don't go in without my noise cancelling headphones now haha. But I imagine if the room was a lot bigger that would not be an issue.
- skosch 7y agoWild speculation: I wonder whether loudness is actually a design goal, to make the dryer appear more powerful. A sizable number of people are skeptical of electric vehicles, because they perceive an earth-shaking vroooom to be an essential part of the driving experience. Could someone with industry experience chime in?
- bifrost 7y agoThere are car makers who now use DSPs to process exhaust noise to play INTO the interior of the car to make people feel like they're driving! I drive a turboed car, turbos are naturally sound dampening, I'm totally fine with it being quieter as long as its actually faster. To the speed point though, I'd probably drive a P100D because they're ridiculously fast...
- hunter2_ 7y agoVW even did this mechanically before switching to an electronic version. At least that means it's easier to shut it up: https://www.carworklog.com/2016/07/02/guide-disableturn-down-the-soundaktor-with-vcds-fake-engine-sound/ https://www.carworklog.com/2016/07/02/guide-disableturn-down...
- bifrost 7y ago
- zodPod 7y agoI mean, these things hurt MY ears too and I'm 30. I will frequently just dry my hands on my pants. She did a great job!
- sarego 7y agoI read the previous post on this that appeared on HN a couple of weeks back. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20282837 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20282837 My 3 year old used to close her ears anyways when near any of these hand dryers but now i warn her when one is about to turn on.
- sneak 7y agoI wonder how sanitary they are, considering that they are basically using a bunch of bathroom air blasted at your previously-clean hands, too. I would hate those things even if they were silent.
- tkahnoski 7y agoMy 3 year old covers his ears in any public bathroom regardless of whether anyone is even in there. Hand dryers are one item but there are some toilets that are also excessively loud as well.
- maddyboo 7y agoHand dryers need to die. Their primary benefit is lower cost of operation for the facility, but other than that, their environmental impact is at best marginally better than paper towels, and worst is their hygienic aspect. Various studies have found up to a two-fold increase in bacteria count on users' hands, as well as a risk of contaminating the surrounding area with bacteria blown off of the user's skin: "In 2009 a published study was conducted by the University of Westminster to compare the levels of hygiene offered by paper towels, warm air hand dryers and the more modern jet-air hand dryers. It found that after washing and drying hands with the warm air dryer, the total number of bacteria was found to increase on average on the finger pads by 194% and on the palms by 254%; drying with the jet air dryer resulted in an increase on average of the total number of bacteria on the finger pads by 42% and on the palms by 15%; and after washing and drying hands with a paper towel, the total number of bacteria was reduced on average on the finger pads by up to 76% and on the palms by up to 77%." [1] The noise aspect discussed in this article is yet another reason air dryers need to die. I hadn't even considered the effect they might have on kid's ears, and I'd imagine most adults probably haven't thought about it either. I find them positively annoying, but having your ears at the same height as these monstrosities must be horrible. Kudos to Miss Keegan for her wonderful research! 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_dryer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_dryer
- mlurp 7y agoNot that I want extra bacteria, but I wonder how significant that increase is practically, or what the baseline is. I'll sometimes shake a dozen peoples' hands in a row if I'm at a party, or hold onto public transport rails... Can it be much worse than that?
- m3at 7y agoRelevant thread on the same subject from two weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20282837 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20282837
- bifrost 7y agoI honestly hate hand dryers, half the time I end up drying my hands on the sides of my pants if I'm wearing jeans... My kid hates the sound of them too so it totally makes sense that they're actually bad.
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- jeena 7y agoSome air dryers start with a motion detector and and it was impossible to get most of the kids to even enter the toilet because they were afraid that it would start the dryer accidentally. I myself was confused why their reaction was so extreme but didn't think that the noise is much louder at their height and that their ears are more sensitive to loud noise too. Interesting that it needs a kid scientist to take this on them because adults with their height bias didn't measure at those spots.
- vasco 7y agoJust wipe your hands on your pants after shaking them in the air for a bit.
- qazpot 7y agoI have never understood hand dryers. I mean how lazy one can be that they need a machine to blow hot air instead of wiping their hands.
- finder83 7y agoThey're not for the benefit of people who use them. They're supposedly cheaper than paper towels for the owner, and there may be some environmental benefit. I haven't seen research into either claim though.
- probwalk 7y agoKudos to the author! My toddler son is always scared by the hand dryers. He refused and tried to escape from bathrooms with hand dryers.