TABLE 4.

Bacteria recovered from agar plates exposed to hand dryers with and without HEPA filters or to bathroom air^a

Bacteriab	Present after dryer air exposure		Present after bathroom air exposure
	Without HEPA filter (n = 53)c	With HEPA filter (n = 17)
Acinetobacter baumannii†			√
Acinetobacter radioresistens			√
Bacillus cereus†	√	√
Bacillus infantis	√
Bacillus licheniformis†	√
Bacillus marisflavi		√
Bacillus megaterium†	√	√	√
Bacillus pumilus†	√	√
Bacillus simplex†	√	√
Bacillus subtilis†	√		√
Erwinia sp.	√		√
Exiguobacterium aurantiacum			√
Kocuria rhizophila†	√
Micrococcus luteus†	√		√
Pantoea septica‡		√
Paracoccus yeei	√
Pseudomonas luteola		√
Roseomonas mucosa	√
Staphylococcus aureus†	√	√
Staphylococcus capitis†	√		√
Staphylococcus epidermidis†	√
Staphylococcus hominis†	√	√	√
Staphylococcus pasteuri	√
Staphylococcus simulans	√

^aColonies were recovered on blood agar or MacConkey plates exposed to hand dryer air or bathroom air moved by small fans, and organisms were identified as described in Materials and Methods.

^bOrganisms shown in boldface are reported in the literature to cause invasive disease in susceptible hosts. †, recovered from multiple bathrooms; ‡, recovered from MacConkey agar (the only other colony recovered from these plates could not be identified).

^cn, number of colonies tested.