ATLANTA—Dyson, the English vacuum cleaner company, announced that their Airblade hand drying system has been awarded certification by NSF International. The Airblade system is marketed in the United States by Cannon Hygiene, Inc. This is the first and only such award the NSF has ever given to a hand dryer manufacturer. Formerly known as the National Sanitary Foundation, NSF is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization, headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich.
NSF has become a world leader in standards development, product certification, education, environmental protection, risk management, and sets guidelines to help protect health and the environment. According to Doug Calvert, president of Cannon Hygiene, one reason why the Airblade earned the certification was the system’s HEPA filter.
“Commercial hand dryers can promote the distribution of potentially harmful bacteria and pathogens,” Calvert says. “The HEPA filter captures nearly 100 percent of these containments, preventing them from becoming airborne and harming health.”
Additional Awards and Honors
The Airblade was introduced in late 2006. It does not include a heating element, but generates a curtain of air traveling more than 400 miles per hour. The result is that hands dry in less than 12 seconds. In addition to the NSF award, the Airblade has been honored with endorsements from:
• The Royal Institute of Public Health, London, an internationally recognized organization that promotes public health.
• The British Skin Foundation, a well-respected charity committed to raising funds for skin disease research, also based in London.
“Dyson put more than three years of research and development into developing the Airblade,” Calvert adds. “The goal was to not only build a faster hand dryer, but a healthier one as well [and] fortunately, it appears we succeeded.”
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