A 13-year-old girl proves in a four-year study that the noise level of the hand dryer that dries hands is harmful to children's ears



In public washrooms, instead of paper and towels, a

hand dryer may be installed to dry the hands with warm air. A 13-year-old girl living in Canada studied the noise of a hand dryer for four years, and published a paper in a journal that indicated that 'noise from the hand dryer is harmful to children's ears'. It has become.

Children who say hand dryer 'hurt my ears' are correct: A real-world study examining the loudness of automated hand dryers in public places | Paediatrics & Child Health | Oxford Academic
https://academic.oup.com/pch/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/pch/pxz046/5519522



Children wise to fear hand dryers, and 13-year-old proves it with published paper | CBC News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-student-nora-keegan-hand-dyer-research-decibel-1.5185853


Nola Keegan, who lives in Canada, presented this paper. When Keegan was 9 years old, his ear was hurting after using a hand dryer. Since I had the same experience even at the age of 10, I decided to investigate whether the noise of the hand dryer affected my hearing.


by Mike Mozart

Keegan used a machine that can measure noise with decibels , and measured the noise at the distance from the wall and the height at which the hand dryer is installed. “I thought it would be nice if there were data on the height of the child, the height of the woman, the height of the man, and I also measured the noise level at 18 inches (about 46 cm) from the industry standard wall. You may be using it closer, as his arms are shorter than him, 'said Keegan.



During the survey, Keegan noticed that the noise level jumped up when his hands were blown into the air stream blown out of the hand dryer. The noise level was measured based on the height of the child, and it was found that two typical hand dryers in Canada did not have sufficient noise control, and produced noise of approximately 110 decibels. The 110 decibels exceed the noise regulations of 100 decibels that Canada's Ministry of Health has set for children's toys. According to the pamphlet '(PDF file) Living noise ' announced by the Ministry of the Environment, the size of the game center is 80 decibels strong, and the size of the pachinko parlor is 90 decibels, so how big is the noise of 110 decibels I understand well.

Children's ear canal and tympanic membrane are more sensitive than adults, and because they are smaller and shorter, the level of noise that can reach their ears tends to be louder than adults, 'This is a very loud, rock concert level noise. That's what Mr. Keegan says. Keegan seems to have put together the results of his research and presented it at the school's free research.



Keegan continued the same study for four years, and after 13 years old, “The children said their ears were getting messy with the hand dryer are correct: a realistic study to check the loudness of the automatic hand dryer in public We put together in the thesis title and presented. Keegan's dissertation was published not only as part of a free study at the school, but also after being peer-reviewed in the Canadian pediatric medical journal Paediatrics & Child Health .



In the paper Keegan studied various materials to reduce the noise of the hand dryer, and he also devised a new hand dryer model that reduces noise by as much as 11 decibels. Keegan 'I did not know how to test the model to reduce noise properly, but when I installed it in the school's washroom informally, I found that the noise did not get louder.' 'Manufacturer and noise reduction model I am thinking of bringing it to the Health Department of Canada, but this is only one study, and it would be better to test the hand dryer more and investigate more about its noise level. ' .

in Science, Posted by log1i_yk