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Fan death

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For the electro-disco band, see Fan Death.
A widely held belief states that when operated in closed rooms, electric fans cause sudden death, suffocating victims by stealing their oxygen.

Fan death is a widely held belief in South Korea that an electric fan left running overnight in a closed room can cause the death of those inside. Fans sold in Korea are equipped with a timer switch that turns them off after a set number of minutes, which users are frequently urged to set when going to sleep with a fan on.[1]

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.[1] The KCPB 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.

Despite widespread reporting from the media and other agencies in South Korea about fan death, it has never been explained by these organizations why this phenomenon has never been reported or even heard of in any country other than South Korea.

Origins

The genesis of this South Korean superstition remains a mystery, although there are some theories as to how it started. The most common theory is that since the first reports of fan death did not occur until the 1970s, there is speculation that this was done in order to conserve energy usage by the Korean population. Additionally, the theory implies that the South Korean government supported this notion in order to reduce energy usage at a time of limited supplies.[2]

Beliefs

Electric fans sold in Korea are equipped with a "timer knob" switch, which turns them off after a set number of minutes: perceived as a life-saving function, particularly essential for bed-time use.

The specifics behind belief in the myth of fan-death often offer several explanations for the precise mechanism by which the fan kills. However, as explained below, none of these beliefs stand up to logical or scientific scrutiny. Examples for possible justifications of belief in fan death are as follows:

  • That fans contribute to hypothermia, or abnormally low body temperature.[3] As the metabolism slows down at night, one becomes more sensitive to temperature, and thus supposedly more prone to hypothermia. If the fan is left on all night in a sealed and enclosed room, believers in fan death suppose that it will lower the temperature of the room to the point that it can cause hypothermia. Empirical measurements will show, however, that the temperature in the room does not fall, at least not due to the fan; if at all, it should rise slightly because of friction and the heat output of the fan motor, but even this is generally not significant. Fans actually make one cooler by increasing the convection around a person's body so that heat flows from them to the air more easily, and by the latent heat of vaporization as perspiration evaporates from the body. However, there is no scientific study which indicates that this effect would be sufficient to cause hypothermia unless the temperature were already very low. Furthermore, discomfort will always wake a person long before they succumb to hypothermia.
  • That fans contribute to prolonged asphyxiation due to environmental oxygen displacement or carbon dioxide intoxication.[3][4][5][6] In the process of human respiration, inhaled fresh air is exhaled with a lower concentration of oxygen gas (O2), and higher concentration of carbon dioxide gas (CO2), causing a gradual reduction of O2 and buildup of CO2 in a completely unventilated room.[7] Other indoor sources of carbon dioxide include burning fossil fuels, such as a gas-fueled water heater, and seepage through foundations in areas of high CO2 soil content.[8] Carbon dioxide is a colorless, odorless gas, and because it weighs 1.5 times more than normal air,[9] it tends to concentrate toward the floor,[6] depending on temperature and air currents. In South Korea, some people sleep on traditional floor mats, called yos, while others prefer western-style beds, and floor vents may be absent when ondol radiant underfloor heating is employed.[10] According to The Straight Dope website run by the Chicago Reader newspaper, asphyxiation is an unlikely cause of fan death because "few rooms are totally sealed, and the fan would tend to keep CO2 and other gases well mixed."[4]

Media coverage

In summer, mainstream Korean news sources regularly report on cases of fan death. A typical example is this excerpt from the July 4, 2011, edition of The Korea Herald, an English-language newspaper:

A man reportedly died on Monday morning after sleeping with an electric fan running. The 59 years-old victim, only known by his surname Min, was found dead with the fan fixed directly at him.[11]

However, this article at least nominally repudiates the fan death myth, saying that there is "no evidence" for it.

Published professional opinion

Gord Giesbrecht, a professor of thermophysiology at the University of Manitoba,[12] is a leading expert on hypothermia:

It's hard to imagine death by fan, because to die of hypothermia, one's body temperature would have to get down to 28 [°C], drop by 10 degrees [Celsius] overnight. We've got people lying in snowbanks overnight here in Winnipeg and they survive. Maybe if someone was elderly and they were sitting there for three days in a sealed room with an electric fan turned on. Someone is not going to die from hypothermia because their body temperature drops two or three degrees overnight; it would have to drop eight to ten degrees." In addition, "the only way to verify whether someone had really died of hypothermia during the night would be to take a core body temperature the following morning. Waiting three days while the body was in the morgue wouldn't work because the corpse's temperature can drop during that time.[3]

Dr. John Linton at Yonsei's Severance Hospital, who attended medical school at Yonsei University, is licensed to practice medicine in South Korea:[3]

There are several things that could be causing the fan deaths, things like pulmonary embolisms, cerebrovascular accidents or arrhythmia. There is little scientific evidence to support that a fan alone can kill you if you are using it in a sealed room. Although it is a common belief among Koreans, there are other explainable reasons for why these deaths are happening.

Dr. Lee Yoon-song is a professor at Seoul National University's medical school and works with the school's Institute of Scientific Investigation. He has conducted autopsies on some of the people who have been described in Korean media as having succumbed to fan death:

When someone's body temperature drops below 35 degrees, they do start to lose judgment ability. So if someone was hiking and later found dead, that could be part of the reason. But we can't really apply this to fan accidents. I found most of the victims already had some sort of disease like heart problems or serious alcoholism. So hypothermia is not the main reason for death, but it may contribute.

He blames the Korean media for the persistence of the urban legend:

Korean reporters are constantly writing inaccurate articles about death by fan, describing these deaths as being caused by the fan. That's why it seems that fan deaths only happen in Korea, when in reality these types of deaths are quite rare. They should have reported the victim's original defects such as heart or lung disease, which are the main cause of death in these cases.

Dr. Laurence S. Kalkstein, Research Professor of Geography and Regional Studies at University of Miami, however, has suggested that seniors may die from heart attack or stroke caused by the use of fans in an enclosed environment. JoongAng Ilbo quoted him saying:

If a fan is run inside an enclosed room where the indoor temperature is high, the heat is concentrated on the person, so the body temperature actually rises. As fan air blows on exposed skin, the body becomes dehydrated, resulting in a heart attack or stroke and death from respiration difficulties.[13][14]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Beware of Summer Hazards!" (Press release). Korea Consumer Protection Board (KCPB). 2006-07-18. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
  2. ^ "Fan Death". Snopes.com. 6 June 2011.
  3. ^ a b c d Surridge, Grant. (2004-09-22). "Newspapers fan belief in urban myth." JoongAng Daily, via joongangdaily.joins.com and archive.org. Retrieved on 2007-08-30.
  4. ^ a b Adams, Cecil (1997-09-12). "Will sleeping in a closed room with an electric fan cause death?". The Straight Dope. Chicago Reader, Inc. Retrieved 2007-08-02.
  5. ^ Watanabe, Toshifumi, and Masahiko Morita. (1998-08-31). "Asphyxia due to oxygen deficiency by gaseous substances." Forensic Science International, Volume 96, Issue 1, Pages 47–59. Retrieved on 2007-09-06.
  6. ^ a b Gill, James R., Susan F. Ely, and Zhongxue Hua. (2002). "Environmental Gas Displacement: Three Accidental Deaths in the Workplace." The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, 23(1):26 –30, 2002. Retrieved on 2007-09-06.
  7. ^ "Concentrated Carbon Dioxide in Western Pennsylvania." The Pittsburgh Geological Society. Retrieved on 2007-09-06.
  8. ^ (2005-11-25). "Chemical Fact Sheets: Carbon Dioxide (CO2)." Wisconsin Department of Health & Family Services. Retrieved on 2007-09-06.
  9. ^ (April 1999). "Safety & Health Bulletin: Protecting Workers From the Acute Effects of Carbon Dioxide Fire Extinguishing Systems Introduction." DOE/EH-0196, Issue 99-1, Office of Occupational Safety and Health Policy, U.S. Department of Energy. Retrieved on 2007-09-06.
  10. ^ "Chapter 3: Housing" Everyday Korean Life, Korea Local Authorities Foundation for International Relations (KLAFIR). Retrieved on 2007-09-06.
  11. ^ "Summer death revives fan death myth". The Korea Herald. 2011-07-04. Archived from the original on 2011-11-26.
  12. ^ 2005-09-07. "Fall 2005 Curriculum (Archive), Learning Series Session (Sept. 21, 2005): Keep Your Head Up: A Primer on Cold Water Immersion and Near-Drowning." (Website). Smartrisk Navigator. Retrieved on 2007-09-01.
  13. ^ 2008-08-02. "US Climatology Expert: Fan Death is Real (Website). The Marmot's Hole. Retrieved on 2011-04-18.
  14. ^ 2008-07-30. 선풍기 틀고 자다 죽는 진짜 이유는… (Website). JoongAng Ilbo. Retrieved on 2011-04-18.

Corrected link to Korea Consumer Agency Article: http://www.kca.go.kr/jsp/eng/news_01_view.jsp

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