[mlurp]

Not that I want extra bacteria, but I wonder how significant that increase is practically, or what the baseline is. I'll sometimes shake a dozen peoples' hands in a row if I'm at a party, or hold onto public transport rails... Can it be much worse than that?

[d99kris]

Well, one of the reasons for washing and drying ones hands is to reduce the amount of bacteria exposure. I don't have the same expectation when shaking a dozen peoples' hands at a party.

[pushpop]

It’s to reduce specific types of bad bacteria that you might have contaminated yourself with when you went to the toilet.

I don’t think anyone can expect that washing your hands will eliminate all bacteria- including those in the air.

That said, I still hate hand dryers and still refuse to use them.