Hygienic door handles: the final frontier of bathroom automation?

Last year in Germs on the Brain I wrote about strategies patrons employ to avoid touching their clean hands to the bathroom door knob on the way out. Some use paper towels, some a “pinky pull,” and others wash up again once they leave. Then there are handles that can be operated with an elbow, automatic door openers, foot pedals, and sprayers that disinfect the handle on a regular basis (without dripping, of course.)I got a note today from Purleve, which has developed a variety of automated bathroom devices including autoflush, autofaucet, autosoap, and autoclean. They've just introduced the Purleve Hygienic Door Handle, a line of push/pull and lock/latch door handles that provide "clean and germ free" exit and entry. According to their website:

The Pūrleve™ hygienic door handle was born out of public demand, pure and simple. In a world where an estimated 30% of bathroom users don't wash their hands after using public restrooms, who wants to touch the shared handle that offers the only form of escape from the facility? And the fear is justified, since a typical restroom door handle is home to a multitude of bacteria —many of which carry disease-causing germs that continually multiply if not treated.Employing a proprietary Automatic Sleeve Dispenser (ASD) technology, we created a replacement door handle that automatically advances antimicrobial* material to cover the handle, providing a refreshed, sanitary touch after each and every use. So visitors to restrooms and other public areas are no longer affected by the questionable hygiene habits of all the persons who have gone before them.

I'm looking forward to seeing one of these little items in action!