AIBU to ask that hand driers are banned.

[BathshebaKnickerStickers]

I work as a TA with children who have ASC.

Every child with ASC In our school HATES/is scared of/is anxious about hand driers.

We have various toilets in the school where they are switched off permanently.

Thinking about it, surely one of the most obvious and simple thing that any organisation/business can do is to remove hand driers.

Surely using recycled paper towels, with enough bins, and onward recycling is better for the environment too.

Companies like Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s who do “low impact hours” once or twice a week could very quickly become more “low impact” 24 hours a day simply by removing all the hand driers.

Agreed! My DC don’t have additional needs (I’m so sorry if this isn’t the correct term and I am happy to be corrected) but they all hate the hand driers and always have, quite often they’ve been in tears because someone has used one whilst they’ve been in the loo.
Going off the Big Bang Theory apparently they’re really unhygienic too and I think paper towels if recycled and disposed of correctly would be more environmentally friendly.

Removing them in schools where children are scared of them sounds like a good idea, but I don't think there should be a universal ban.

I live in japan. Here, kids have to carry handkerchiefs or small pocket towels for drying their hands at school. I think it's a good idea.

My DCs jumped when little, but now do not notice them. They can be more efficient than paper towels.

YABU they are more eco efficient than paper towels. New ones I mean, older ones probably not.

My dd4 is petrified of them! We have proper tears if someone uses them whilst she's in the loo. I thought she might have grown out of it by now.

I mean, by all
Means have them removed from say a specific school like yours, but not from everywhere I’m afraid.

I'm autistic and not a fan of hand driers, though I can occasionally use one if necessary, depending on the type, but I don't see a need to remove them from all bathrooms because some people have a phobia of them(And I say that as someone with a long list of phobias) and the newer models are considerably more environmentally friendly than paper towels.

I agree!

Our local shopping centre really annoys me with this. Once a year, on national autism awareness day, they switch off the handryers and the background music and make a big fuss of saying “look at us, we are being considerate, we are really woke! People with autism really struggle with these noises!”
And I think great, you know this is a problem, but every other day of the year you don’t give a shit, and play loud music and use hand dryers. But thanks for that one day, it’s really helpful.

Nah. Less waste. Less environmental impact. Less mess. More hygenic for staff to clean up after.

Take your own paper towels if it's an issue.

I'd love that. As a grown adult with ASD if I forget the earplugs, I sometimes end up frozen in terror in toilets, or having to run back out again.

The world is deeply unaccommodating to neurodiverse people unfortunately, I don't see it getting easier anytime soon.

Well I don't use them anyway because all they do is blow the germs in the air (from all the open flushing) directly on to your hands not envy so it would have no bearing on me one way or another but I'm not sure their is an environmentally sound way to replace them really. Recycled paper still isn't great due to the volume needed to stock all the uk's public toilets.

I'm not unsympathetic though as while I don't have asd etc I do have complex ptsd and can have a similar freeze/terror response to a trigger as is being described here about hand dryers.

When I was a child I was scared of the vacuum cleaner and fled in terror from the coffee grinder. Should we ban those too?

My 6 year old (asd diagnosed) was always terrified of dryers (hysterical, shaking, running away, fear of using the toilet in public etc). His 3 year old NT brother reacted similarly (although I had wondered if his was a learned reaction from his brother).
Recently, my 6 year old just stopped - no hysteria, even using the dryers! My 3 year old followed... you could have picked me up on the floor. I was so shocked that he just got over that fear given it was rather extreme prior.
Just thought it was an interesting anecdote of how asd children can change and adapt. Not disagreeing with the sentiment of the post, as 6 years of hysteria prior could have been avoided!

I don’t use them
I used to but many years ago I was in the loo at work with a colleague and went to use one , she said “ I wouldn’t do that if I were you” I asked why and she said she used to work for a major manufacturer of them and that they basically blew toilet germs onto your hands
No idea if it was true or if the modern ones are better but I can’t ever get that thought out of my head.
A lot of dc are scared of them though, both NT and SN

they basically blew toilet germs onto your hands

How does that happen if you have washed your hands first?

How would they blow toilet germs on t o your hands? By blowing the air already circulating around your hands directly onto your hands?

Would love for all hand dryers to be removed. Awful noisy faecal spreading machines.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.sciencealert.com/bathroom-hand-dryers-spread-bacteria/amp

Yabu

Can't stand loads of strewn paper waste

Carry a towel/handwipes?

By blowing the air already circulating around your hands directly onto your hands?

But if it's already circulating, it'll be all over you anyway and you will be breathing it in, too.

Those dyson airblades are my fave

I'd love one

blackcat that is the best idea ever! i might start doing that too genius

There are more hygienic, environmentally friendly and stops the mess of used towels on the floor. Dd has asd and jumped when she was little but got used to them, we have always stressed to her she needs to find ways to cope with the world as the world won't change for her - harsh but true. She uses musician earplugs in noisy places to dampen the sound.

i used to love the roll down towels that cleaned themselves (used to have in JL) until they replaced with those bloody dysons

paper towels are just a pain as they cost £££ and always run out