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A Cautionary Tale About The Dangers of Desk Fans

An office worker in London, England was taken to hospital after her hair was caught in the blades of a desk fan, causing lacerations to her scalp and severe blood loss. 24 year old admin assistant Emily Hutnyk, employed by a large tele-communications corporation in the center of London, used the fan to try and cope with the heatwave that recently hit the UK . Temperatures in London soared to a record-breaking 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) in early July, leading to unbearable working conditions in many workplaces. Ms Hutnyk, like thousands of others, placed a cooling fan on her desk to help her cool down whilst working. However the heat and humidity was so intense that she kept moving the fan closer to her face to try and get the most out of it. Tragedy struck when her long blonde hair became trapped within the grilles of the desk fan and got pulled in by the rotating blades. Only a few seconds later a clump of the victim’s long blonde hair had been caught by the blades and forcefully pulled out of her scalp, together with a significant amount of skin. “It was over really fast actually”, said Miss Hutnyk, “in fact I think it was worse for my co-workers to watch – personally I passed out within seconds so I barely remember it. My colleagues told me later there was a lot of blood around – I think it was more traumatic for them to be honest.” An ambulance was called and she was rushed to hospital, where she required 12 stitches on her scalp. Once her head wounds have fully recovered Miss Hutnyk may consider hair implant surgery, as some of the hair that was pulled out may never grow back.

A spokesperson from the company said: “This was a tragic accident and we take full responsibility for not providing proper cooling facilities in the office. We will be fitting each office with a ceiling fan and banning the use of desk fans to prevent these kinds of incidents in the future.” For general workers union GMB, however, this response was completely inadequate. “Essentially the cause of these kinds of problems is that our workplaces in the UK are simply not set up to deal with hot weather – and to be honest a ceiling fan is not enough. We are demanding that every office in the UK be fitted with full air conditioning both to help people concentrate on their work and ensure this kind of tragedy never happens again.” The union is advising Ms Hutnyk to consider taking legal action against the company for breach of health and safety regulations.

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