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Chasing Life

Why No One Should Ever Use Air Dryers in Public Bathrooms

Chasing Life

CNN

Nutrition, Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.5 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2026

⏱️ 15 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Should you use an air dryer or paper towels to dry your hands after washing them in a public bathroom? Dr. Sanjay Gupta shares his take. Plus, plasma donation is a growing trend across the country. Dr. Gupta digs into the reasons why and if there are any long-term health consequences. This episode was produced by Leying Tang. Medical Writer: Andrea KaneShowrunner: Dan BloomTechnical Director: Dan Dzula Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey there, it's Sanjay. The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It's a

0:07.2

constantly evolving situation, and I know that can come with uncertainty and concerns. These types of

0:13.4

viral outbreaks are something that my colleague Anderson Cooper and I have seen firsthand while

0:17.8

reporting on the ground in Africa. And as always, we want to keep you informed.

0:22.9

We want to answer your questions.

0:24.7

So Anderson and I are going to be holding an interactive Q&A session all about Ebola,

0:30.0

exclusively for CNN All Access subscribers.

0:33.4

Go ahead, start submitting your questions now at CNN.com slash subscriber series, and we will answer them live on Wednesday, June 3rd at 5 p.m. Eastern.

0:43.6

Hope to see you there.

0:49.1

Welcome to paging, Dr. Gupta.

0:50.7

Thank you so much for joining us.

0:52.7

I love listening to all your comments and your

0:55.2

questions. It really gives me a sense of what's on your mind. My producer, Jennifer, is back with us

1:01.0

today. Who do we have first? Hi, Sanjay. Today we have a 14-year-old calling from Orlando, Florida,

1:07.6

with a great question about bathroom air dryers.

1:11.6

Hello, my name is David, and my question for the podcast is, are air dryers safe?

1:18.2

Like, do they have a filter where they filter the bacteria out?

1:23.3

Okay, David, 14-year-old David, thank you for calling in. That's a great question. Look, sometimes you've got to use a public restroom. I don't think anyone wants to do that, but sometimes it's just obviously inevitable. It may feel stressful because public restrooms may feel like they're full of pathogens, like bacteria, maybe even viruses.

1:45.9

So we know that we need to wash our hands after using the bathroom wherever we are.

1:51.2

What you may not know is that it's also critically important to draw your hands after washing them,

1:56.3

because it helps decrease the volume of germs on our hands,

2:00.0

and also because bacteria can be spread way more easily when our hands are wet.

...

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