The same technology that vacuum manufacturers have touted for years recently has been implemented by hand dryer manufacturers.

Because recent studies suggest that hand dryers can be unhygienic since they are sucking in and blowing out quote, unquote “polluted” restroom air onto hands, high-speed dryer manufacturers have introduced units that use HEPA filters. These filters clean the air being sucked in by the units before air is blown onto restroom patrons’ hands. This anti-microbial addition, manufacturers say, removes 99.9 percent of bacteria from the air used to dry hands.