Worse than wiping and not washing? Washing and drying with a hand dryer.

Some De Anza College students and administration are concerned with consumption of paper towels in the bathrooms, and the amount of waste generated by them. Some argue that we should all use the hand dryers, and just do away with paper towels altogether.

I am all for saving paper whenever possible, but not having paper towels in the bathroom is just irresponsible and dangerous.

Hand dryers are one of the most germ-ridden devices a public restroom can have. Hand dryers contain filters in them, and several other mechanical parts that the air passes through before it gets to your hands. A study by the University of Westminster reveals that fecal bacteria in the air can get into these hand dryers, which then put the bacteria on your hands, arms and even under your fingernails.

After we wash our hands and dry them under these dryers, we might eat, touch our eyes, hair, face, and further contaminate ourselves. We can get different sicknesses from these hand dryers, the most common being staph infection, which can lead to the flu, strep throat or bronchitis.

Why even bother washing your hands, right? I'd rather have my own bacteria on my hands instead of everyone else's.

Not having paper towels in the bathroom forces people to use the hand dryers, and further subject themselves to these germs and the risk of getting sick. Try to avoid these hand dryers. Even if there are no towels, it is much safer to wipe your hands on your pants or just let them air dry.

Think of it this way, when you wash your hands under running water with soap, you are loosening the bacteria. Then, by wiping your hands, you are wiping off whatever germs didn't go down the drain. If you dry your hands with a hand dryer, you are just drying the bacteria back onto your own hands.

We are all responsible adults and know that we don't need 50 paper towels to dry our hands. I don't think anyone at De Anza College abuses our paper towel "privilege" and I think this might just be a sneaky way for the school to save a buck.

Many incidences in bathrooms that require the use paper towels. If someone spills water on the floor, should they go find a custodian to clean up the mess so that nobody gets hurt? That would take too long. Sure, you could use half a roll of toilet paper, but that would be wasting paper.

I realize that paper towels create more of a mess and accumulate more garbage, but less garbage could mean more spread of disease. I am no germaphobe. But this is just common sense to me. If the school wants to do away with paper towels, fine. But you won't see me using a hand dryer.