AND YET, AS A “GREEN” INITIATIVE, THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE IS REPLACING PAPER TOWELS WITH THESE EVERYWHERE ON CAMPUS: Hot-air dryers suck in nasty bathroom bacteria and shoot them at your hands. “Hot-air dryers suck in bacteria and hardy bacterial spores loitering in the bathroom—perhaps launched into the air by whooshing toilet flushes—and fire them directly at your freshly cleaned hands, according to a study published in the April issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology. . . . in the wake of the blustery study—which took place in research facility bathrooms around UConn—’paper towel dispensers have recently been added to all 36 bathrooms in basic science research areas in the UConn School of Medicine surveyed in the current study,’ the authors note. The research findings largely square with other data showing that hot-air dryers and jet dryers can launch and disperse germs from hands into the air and onto surfaces—essentially setting off a very dirty bathroom bomb. But the new study clearly demonstrates that the less powerful hot-air dryers can also bathe hands with germs already swirling in the wash room.”