Fan Death

Posted by Alex in Everything Else on June 26, 2008 at 8:38 pm


Ah, South Korea: a major economic powerhouse of Asia, world leader in technology and a …. superstitious country?

Here’s a particularly strange urban legend of "Fan death" where an electric fan, if left running overnight in a closed room, can cause death of those inside. The urband legend is so pervasive in South Korea that manufacturers had to equip fans with a timer switch that turns them off after a certain period of time!

Can an electric fan cause harm to its user? The Korean Consumer Protection Board once stated:

"If bodies are exposed to electric fans or air conditioners for too long, it causes bodies to lose water and [causes] hypothermia. If directly in contact with [air current from] a fan, this could lead to death from [the] increase of carbon dioxide saturation concentration and decrease of oxygen concentration. The risks are higher for the elderly and patients with respiratory problems. From 2003 [to] 2005, a total of 20 cases were reported through the CISS involving asphyxiations caused by leaving electric fans and air conditioners on while sleeping. To prevent asphyxiation, timers should be set, wind direction should be rotated and doors should be left open."

Link – Thanks Stephanie D!


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COMMENT

20 comments to "Fan Death"

  1. jimmy
    June 26th, 2008 at 8:59 pm

    my girlfriend was born in seoul and her parents left her with this belief to a T. lol, she brings up the possibility of fan death once in awhile on particularly hot nights. i love it.

  2. ty
    June 26th, 2008 at 10:29 pm

    i think the last five words of that quote are sufficient to prevent further asphyxiation. how did 20 people die? maybe they got tangled in the power cord.

  3. Sleestak
    June 26th, 2008 at 11:46 pm

    More likely, though still improbable, is that this occurrs in homes that are heated through warm air being piped under the floors (Ondol Heating, "warm air"). A fan may stir carbon-monoxide, which being heavier would normally flow down and lay under the raised floor, up into the breathing areas closer to the surface of the floor. Many Koreans still sleep close to the floor on padded mattresses and they may be breathing in carbon monoxide seeping up from the cracks in the flooring.

  4. clinton labombard
    June 26th, 2008 at 11:59 pm

    Wow... I mean, yeah... I didn't realize I was.. y'know.. dead. This's weird. *bonk* ..ow... Lemmie try that again.. *bonk* Nope. Ain't working. Hold on, maybe I should try.. *bonk* Hm. Well, this sucks. If I were alive I'd sue all the TV shows depicting ghosts walking through walls. But, you know, the weirder thing is I figured if I'm see-through I should be able to see my face with my eyes closed, but that doesn't work either. Of course, it does explain why I get ignored so much I mean, really, if they can't see or hear you then they ain't gonna respond. In fact, that also explains why I can have my AC running 24/7 with no ill effects, so in a way this kinda rocks.

  5. drr
    June 27th, 2008 at 12:19 am

    When I sleep with a fan blowing on me I find that my dreams are more vivid (or I just remember them better?).. I'd guess its because the breeze wakes me up a little.

  6. * Miss Universe
    June 27th, 2008 at 12:59 am

    Or just open the window slightly - put in an insect screen - and put the fan near it to blow in the air

    Of course, if one lives on the ground floor in a dangerous neighborhood - there may be fair of leaving a window open a night - even if there are window bars on it.

  7. Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
    June 27th, 2008 at 1:37 am

    I've had a fan running all night in an enclosed space. I wonder why I'm not dead... Maybe it only kills Koreans.

    Wouldn't the concentrations of carbon dioxide and oxygen be the same in a closed room whether you had a fan on or not?

  8. Mrs. Monkey
    June 27th, 2008 at 3:35 am

    We lived in Busan, Korea a couple years ago and marveled at the impossibility of buying a fan without a timer. Summer nights get sticky hot and impossible to survive without a fan blowing. It's a bitch to wake up every twenty minutes, ALL NIGHT LONG, to reset the timer. Stupid urban legends. My husband finally rigged up an ugly mass of packing tape which disabled the timer on our fan (a crude kitchen-timer affair). And BTW, in Korea, you can buy expensive refrigerators to house your kimchi all on its precious lonesome, but it's almost impossible to buy a clothes dryer. I love my kimchi, but I love drying my face with a towel unlike starched canvas even more. I also prefer not to sleep on a heated stone bed, but that's just nitpicking.

    KOREA FIGHTING!!!

  9. Sid Morrison
    June 27th, 2008 at 7:38 am

    I've visited Korea a couple times and found it an interesting place. I didn't realize the fan legend, though ... that is good to know. It's surprising that a people who are (generally) a lot more technically astute than many Westeners can delude itself by such nonsensical pseudo-science. Interesting.

  10. Michelle
    June 27th, 2008 at 8:36 am

    Actually, they're not alone! Italians have a similar thing going on that I once blogged about here. Enjoy!!

  11. Zorah
    June 27th, 2008 at 9:14 am

    This asphyxiation phenomenon is probably related to eating too much cabbage and leaving the windows sealed. This is why it only affects Koreans.

  12. Shea
    June 27th, 2008 at 11:07 am

    The lengths they go to to keep themselves distracted from the real threat north of the border.

  13. Adam Stanhope
    June 27th, 2008 at 11:30 am

    I killed a man in Seoul with a fan circa 1993 or 1994. He deserved it.

  14. Shelby
    June 27th, 2008 at 12:00 pm

    If you live in a country in which rooms are about the size of an airplane lavatory this could be totally possible.

    NOT!

    this reminds me of the legend that says if you vacuum up a red matchhead it will cause the vacuum cleaner to ignite. so people in places that only get red matches buy more fire extinguishers than other places.

  15. JC
    June 27th, 2008 at 4:11 pm

    That´s very extreme.

  16. WordyGrrl
    June 27th, 2008 at 5:34 pm

    Wow. I lived in Korea for a couple years (87-90) and wondered if they still believed that air conditioning caused asphyxiation by removing oxygen from the air. Don't remember the fan phobia, though. Just that they had a big preference for oscillating fans.

    As for ondol (charcoal) heating, I thought that had been phased out a couple decades ago, in favor of safer methods. Loved the heated floors when I was there, though. Great for napping.

  17. ted
    June 27th, 2008 at 6:26 pm

    Propaganda to prevent a drain on electric resources.

  18. rabbitspade
    June 28th, 2008 at 12:32 am

    I "taught" kindergarten in South Korea, and would crank up the air conditioners in the hot humid summers, only to have the Manager burst into the room and fling the windows open, thus saving the kids from fan death and returning the room of 6yr olds to a state of dehydrated semi-consciousness.

    Other popular national myths include: The 97 financial crisis was orchestrated by the IMF, and that America intentionally keeps the two Koreas separate because they would be too powerful combined.

  19. Whoa
    June 28th, 2008 at 7:46 pm

    to Sleestak : ondol=winter, fan=summer
    to Mrs. Monkey : every timer has a "continuous operation" setting.

  20. figbash
    June 30th, 2008 at 8:37 pm

    Ondol has nothing to do with charcoal. Modern ondol is simply radiant heat floors, usually through electric coils in cement or through piping hot water through pipes in the floor. All perfectly safe.


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