"Fan Death"

In the western world, "Fan Death" is roughly known only as an Italo Disco band based out of Vancouver.
However, to the average foreigner living in South Korea, it is a very, very serious epidemic. (insert sarcasm here)

Fan Death is a Korean urban legend that many Koreans take as fact. The myth is as follows:

"If you leave an electric fan running while you are sleeping in a room with the windows closed, you will suffocate and die."

I had heard of fan death well before I left for Korea and thought it too pointless to really blog about since almost every westerner who has a blog writes about this strange phenomena. But I feel like being unoriginal today.

Death via electric fan sounds rediculous to most people, so it is very strange that many educated, rational, Koreans swear it is true. So true, that all electric fans sold in Korea have timers on them so you do not accidently leave it on all night and kill yourself. And they even have warnings posted as well:

A simple search of Wikipedia cites many "explanations" into the phenomenon, but here are the basics of how fans could kill you. Try not to laugh...

1. An electric fan creates a vortex, which sucks the oxygen from the enclosed and sealed room and creates a partial vacuum inside. (sounds like a plot of an episode of Star Trek)

2. Electric fans chops up all the oxygen particles in the air leaving none to breathe. (My favorite explaination)

3. The fans electric motor uses up the oxygen in the room and creates fatal levels of carbon dioxide. (even though they don't use fuel like a candle)


4. If the fan is put directly in front of the face of the sleeping person, it will suck all the air away, preventing one from breathing. (I do this all the time in the summer and to my recollection have never died)

5. Fans contribute to hypothermia, or abnormally low body temperature.^[2] As the metabolism slows down at night, one becomes more sensitive to temperature, and thus supposedly more prone to hypothermia. (Maybe.... if you are extremely old and feeble, and possibly using the fan in the middle of the winter with your windows open)

6. Fans contribute to prolonged asphyxiation due to environmental oxygen displacement or carbon dioxide intoxication. (A bunch of fancy scientific words that means nothing because it's a load of hooey)

7. Fans directly on the body deprives "skin-breathing," leading to suffocation. (Maybe we shouldn't wear clothing either because clothes deprive our skin of breathing)

The government's take is:

The Korea Consumer Protection Board (KCPB), a South Korean government-funded public agency, issued a consumer safety alert in 2006 warning that "asphyxiation from electric fans and air conditioners" was among South Korea's five most common seasonal summer accidents or injuries, according to data they collected.^[10] Also included among the five hazards were air conditioner explosions and sanitation issues, including food poisoning and opportunistic pathogens harbored in air conditioners. The KCPB actually published the following:

If bodies are exposed to electric fans or air conditioners for too long, it causes [the] bodies to lose water and [causes] hypothermia. If directly in contact with [air current from] a fan, this could lead to death from [an] increase of carbon dioxide saturation concentration [sic] 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.

There are even cases of professionally published articles both stating fan death as truth and denoucing it as myth. I think I'm going to stick with it as a myth seeing how I have slept with the fan blowing directly on me with my windows closed on multiple occasions and have still lived to tell the tale.

 Now, where can I find a "I'm A Fan-Death Survivor" T-shirt, bracelt, and ribbon to wear and promote awareness....?

Perhaps it only effects Koreans?

Nope. Here's a video someone posted testing that theory:

A special thanks to Kelly O. R. for the suggestion to post this.

Happy Birthday to you as well!