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Hand dryers are ubiquitous in public toilets, but according to a study recently published in the Canadian journal Paediatrics & Child Health, the noise they produce can be harmful to children's ears.
And the author of the study can talk about his personal experience.
"Sometimes, after using a hand dryer, my ears started ringing," Nora Keegan, 13, of Calgary, Canada told NPR. "I've also noticed that kids would not want to use hand dryers and would cover their ears."
So at the age of 9, Nora decided to test the volume of hand dryers and determine whether they were harming the children's hearing. Nora's research confirming her hypothesis was published in June.
"The hand dryers are actually very very strong, and especially at the height of children, because they are close to the point of exit from the air," says Nora, noting that children's ears are more sensitive.
For the study, which was conducted between 2015 and 2017, she visited more than 40 public toilets in Alberta, Canada. She used a professional decimeter to measure sound levels of hand dryers at different heights and distances.
The young scientist then presented her research at the Calgary Youth Science Fair earlier this year.
She discovered that Xlerator hand dryers and two types of Dyson Airblade hand dryers posed the biggest threat to children's hearing. According to the study, these types exceed all 100 decibels – a volume that can result in "learning disturbances, attention difficulties and broken ear drums".
"My strongest measure was 121 decibels with a Dyson Airblade model," she says. "And this is not good because Health Canada does not allow the sale of toys to more than 100 decibels for children because they know that they can damage children's hearing. "
In response to these findings, Dyson confirmed to NPR, in an email, that an acoustics engineer would meet Nora to discuss his research. Excel Dryer, the company that sells Xlerator hand dryers, has not responded to a request for comment.
Congratulation to # CYSF2019 @TedRogersFund The winner, Nora Keegan, who is currently researching the volume of automated hand dryers in public places, was published in the Journal of Paediatrics & Child Health! #makemorepossible pic.twitter.com/gKUcaqCi5c
– YYC Science Fair (@ScienceFairCYSF) June 19, 2019
"While other units were operating at low noise levels, many units were noisier at the height of children's ears than at adults'," the study concluded.
Nora hopes that her findings will spur more research on the subject and eventually lead Canada to regulate noise levels of hand dryers. But for now, she pauses and spends her summer like many 13 year olds – at the camp.
Ashley Westerman produced the broadcast version of this story.
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