Fan Death, a freakish urban legend living solely here in Korea, is the subject of today's blog. If you've never heard of fan death, you may have trouble believing that Korean's say this exists, and if you've already heard of fan death, at least this will give you another chance for a good laugh. Either way, there's no arguing that fan death is one of the best and stupidest ideas that's ever come out of any country.
The idea behind fan death is that a regular household fan is not only capable of killing a person (generally while they're sleeping), but that serious precautions should be taken when operating a fan in your house. The concern over fan death has grown so large that many fans now come with warning labels to prevent accidental death-by-fan, timer switches have been installed to prevent injury, and many Korean experts have weighed in with their opinions on how fan death occurs and can be prevented. When talking with my Korean friends and acquaintances, they've all said to me "yes, fan death is possible" though they will say not very likely. So how in blue blazes can one of these rogue fans going about killing a person? Here's the list I got from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death)
The Vortex - allowing a fan to run can create a vortex within your room, causing a vacuum effect on all the oxygen in the room.
Oxygen Consumption - a fan left running will burn oxygen, leaving carbon dioxide levels dangerously high.
Suffocation - the high speed air coming from the fan can prevent a sleeping person from being able to breathe properly.
Oxygen Chopping - the fan blades "chop" up the oxygen in the room, making it no longer breathable.
Hypothermia - sleeping under a fan will cause your body to get hypothermia.
At first glance and without any rational thought, it may seem that "hey, maybe some of these are possible, like the hypothermia one". If you're thinking this, please, take a moment and reconsider it. A fan doesn't have any part of it that burns oxygen, we've all stuck our faces out a car window and could breathe (skydivers seem to always survive too), the idea that fan's can "chop" up oxygen is hilarious, and if you get hypothermia while sleeping, the minimal amount of body heat being blown away by the fan probably wasn't what finally did you in.
http://www.fandeath.net
All this happened back in the late 90's, and I don't know if there's been any recent articles on it, I'll have to do some more digging. In the meantime, be sure to leave your doors open if you're running a fan at night!
As a quick addendum to this blog, my wallet just got stolen by one of the kids at school. I only found out this morning, though I've already got it back through some intense school wide guilt tripping and putting pressure on the right sources, though all the money in it is long gone ($40-$50). It sucks though, cause it was one of those cute little kids who always wants to be picked up and hang out with me that took it. He comes from a crappy family though, and I think the temptation of money was just too much for him to pass up. I feel bad for the kid, but I think the days of me giving him airplane rides are all over.
2 comments:
You know, I've been laughing at this since day 1. I've heard an interesting theory though... Koreans don't like to acknowledge things that are different, like homosexuality or mental problems, or in this case, suicide. A long time ago, someone committed suicide, but the family didn't want that fact getting out, so they had the doctor say the fan in the room caused the death. Someone heard about it and now it is legend. Interesting, no?
I'm a Korean, and even I think it as idiotic. DUH
Post a Comment