Despite the fact that air is certainly a privileged vehicle for a whole series of viruses, in many public restrooms - above all for a question of easier management - air dryers (blade type or others) are installed for drying hands, notwithstanding the fact that many scientific studies have established that this is a way of increasing contaminants in the air.
Letizia Rostagno
Sitting in the hospital waiting room, ears attentive to my name being called signal-ing my turn to be called in for my appoint-ment, I look around me. I try not to touch anything - door handles, the chair I’m sitting on, the window – well aware of the number of people who uninterruptedly pass through this place, each with his or her problems and… his or her microbes.
The public restrooms are even more bustling with people. And I find myself preoccupied with hygiene only because I’m in a hospital. Would I have the same worries if I were sitting in the waiting room of an airport or a train station, or if I needed to use the bathroom in a café? I don’t think so… But the hygienic situation would be the same, perhaps even worse, because in a hospital germs are kept at bay.
This may not happen elsewhere. Despite the fact that air is certainly a privileged vehicle for a whole series of viruses, in many public restrooms - above all for a question of easier management - air dryers (blade type or others) are installed for drying hands, notwithstanding the fact that many scientific studies have established that this is a way of increasing contaminants in the air.
The use of paper towels can drastically reduce this effect, guaranteeing greater personal hygiene and a more controllable hygiene of the public establishment.
It reminds me of an article I read on the last issue of Perini Journal entitled “Hygiene: do you accept compromises?” Here, the importance not only of washing one’s hands but also of properly drying them was strongly highlighted. The president of Assocarta, Dr. Matteucci, insisted on the need for the effort of everyone involved in the paper and tissue production chain to disseminate this awareness among the public, and ETS is convinced that this can happen through art and its communication potential.
For three years, our association has been committed on this front through the promotion and organization of a Cartoon and Video contest that sees the young generations competing and taking stock of this theme while at the same time producing works that broaden its diffusion.
For three years now, the Cartoon and Video contest promoted by ETS in collaboration with the Accademia di Belle Arti of Bologna, besides rewarding the best ideas for the dissemination of what has today become a fact – the better efficacy of paper both for washing hands and for the hygiene of the bathroom environment, above all if public – greatly contributes to spreading this awareness first of all among the young artists involved and then among the public who comes into contact with this fact through organized exhibitions, the ETS website (http://www.europeantissue.com ) and its Youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/ETSChoices). *