S. Korean "Fan Death"
 

I had never heard of "fan death" before today.

Basically there is a belief in S. Korea that if you sleep with a fan on in a closed room, you could die.

It seems this has been propagated by the government there, and they reported in 2006 that "asphyxiation from electric fans and air conditioners" was one of the five main causes of death during the summer.

Here's more:

Fan death - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here's a news story.

YouTube - Fan Death Claims Another Innocent Life

Hasn't happened to me yet.

That sounds like something from the middle ages. :rolleyes:

I sleep with a fan on at night in my room.

All year round... And have yet to die from it.

There are a number of sites out there on the net which analyze this belief in depth. It seems that dying of fan is a lot more acceptable than dying of overheating, etc, in the summer.

That's the craziest thing I've heard today. I used to sleep with the fan on in my bedroom all the time and... I'm still here.

This is the first time I'm hearing about this.
What I really find strange is why most cases of this "fan death" are occurring in S. Korea?

All cases, actually.

Everything from create a vortex to suck oxygen out of the air to breaking apart oxygen molecules. I have read it was a government effort to get people to use less electricity, and so to turn off their fans and AC units at night. Media helped with the hype.

There are times when I cannot sleep without a fan to circulate the air and it is not because of the temp.

My younger Korean friends joke about this anytime someone mentions it, but you know what? None of them leave their ceiling fans on while sleeping. :D

Ha, I use to sleep with a fan on 24/7 now I just have an air conditioner haha, I hate the heat. Hmm.........??? Craziness....

lol sounds really funny...(goes and switches fan off just in case ;))

I've got a fan going every night and day in my room. Same with the heat/air conditioning. It's been like that for about 5 years and I'm still alive.

leaving a fan on only kills me when it gets stuffy (my room is rather cramped at the moment). i just sleep with the windows open...like i am now cuz its been freakishly warm here in California.

I'm deathly afraid of fans actually. O_O or well, not deathly - but I srsly fear them.

I used to have an electric fan and suddenly it went crazy and the 'blades' started to break off in small pieces and fly around. >_<

I remember when me and my siblings used to mess with fans. We would take out the top and and turn it on, then put our crayons on it, so it would swirl around. :o

Hey is like the chupacabras in Mexico It was a trick from the goverment to distract people, because Mexico was about to enter in a recession and the president at the time was about to live office,

well it's not the same but it shows how the goverment relies on the people ignorance to do whatever they like. or at least in the not first world countries.

What kind of fans were they using?

I used to put cough drops through the metal grill. Neat-o...when yer five...

But, that was a long time ago, with a metal-bladed fan...

That was a weird Wikipedia article, for sure...

Well, It's so damn cold in South Korea. The likely explanation is hypothermia. If it's so cold and if you have a fan on, then that's possible. Weird Science.

A bunch of bullshit like. The amount of energy needed to create a vortex would be immense. The pressure and thinness of the blades would have to be thin on a molecular level to effect that of the unseen.

Didn't expect a guy like you to say that.

The only plausible death scenario would be if you were in a room closed with no means of oxygen getting in and the fan just blowing back the carbon dioxide you emit.

A fan does not make much of a difference to give you hypothermia either. You would wake up as the slight heat change if you had your fan on during a hot summer night.

Um im still here my fan has not taken me out yet but i will keep an eye on it from now on. that was one of the strangest articles i read today but then again its only 9:30am.

Scary .

Fan death - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Did I imply I believed in it? If so, make no mistake. I don't.