Although public toilets increasingly offer electric hand dryers instead of paper towels so they save the money and mess, British researchers have found that the best way to dry hands after washing is with paper towels.

The study, published recently in the Journal of Applied Microbiology and reported by UPI, finds the most effective way of keeping bacterial counts low when drying hands was using disposable paper towels.

Dr. Anna Snelling of the University of Bradford wrote that not drying hands thoroughly after washing can increase the spread of bacteria. Using a conventional electric hand dryer by rubbing one’s hands together may actually contribute to the spread of bacteria.

Snelling and colleagues examined different ways of hand drying — paper towels, traditional hand dryers that rely on evaporation, and a new model that rapidly strips water off the hands using high-velocity air jets. They studied them for how many bacteria were left on the hands.

While the most effective way of keeping bacterial counts low when drying hands was using paper towels, they found that the electric dryer that rapidly stripped moisture off the hands was best for reducing transfer of bacteria to other surfaces.