Heat Cool and Insulate » desk fan http://www.heatcoolandinsulate.com Energy Prices Are Rising - Ideas to Keep Energy Costs in Check Tue, 24 Aug 2010 05:51:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Don’t Get Too Close To Your Desk Fan – A Warning http://www.heatcoolandinsulate.com/air-conditioning/don%e2%80%99t-get-too-close-to-your-desk-fan-%e2%80%93-a-warning-152.php http://www.heatcoolandinsulate.com/air-conditioning/don%e2%80%99t-get-too-close-to-your-desk-fan-%e2%80%93-a-warning-152.php#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:10:24 +0000 Jeff http://www.heatcoolandinsulate.com/air-conditioning/don%e2%80%99t-get-too-close-to-your-desk-fan-%e2%80%93-a-warning-152.php
A young British woman working in an office in London was seriously injured recently when her hair was trapped by 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 [...]


]]> A young British woman working in an office in London was seriously injured recently when her hair was trapped by 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 . Thermometers in the captial city rose to as high as 35 Centigrade (95 F) on July 1st, which meant if you worked in an office in London the conditions could become rather unbearable. Ms Hutnyk, like thousands of others, placed a cooling fan on her desk to help her cool down whilst working. Since desk fans are notoriously inneficient at cooling in very high temperatures, she repeatedly moved the appliance closer to her face. 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. I think my co-workers were acutally the traumatised ones – apparently my blood went everywhere.” Colleagues immediately called an ambulance and she was taken to hospital where doctors stitched her scalp and treated her for blood loss and shock. Her doctors are allegedly thinking about recommending implants to recover the lost hair, which was pulled out by the follicles.

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 overhead ceiling fans and banning the use of desk fans to prevent these kinds of incidents in the future.” However a representative from the office workers trade union GMB called this measure unacceptable. “The problem is that offices are not equipped to deal with such high temperatures, and ceiling fans won’t do it. We are demanding that every office in the UK be fitted with at least a portable air conditioner both to help people concentrate on their work and ensure this kind of tragedy never happens again.” Miss Hutnyk, at the unions advice, is currently considering whether to pursue legal action against the company, which could be a landmark case in health and safety and employment law.

 

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