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This wikipedia article somehow have recently started a dispute in the Korean Internet on fan death, and Yonhapnews wrote a newspaper article about it today. It would be a nice addition to the article. [1] It includes opinions of several Korean medical experts, most of which says there are no proof of the fan death. It concludes that autopsy of 'fan death victims' is required to know for sure. (Koreans usually are reluctant to approve an autopsy of their deceased family members.) 218.153.152.174 ( talk) 04:02, 16 July 2008 (UTC)
The article quoted here is now 10 years old, so not really representative of modern Korea. Is there some new evidence that could be included in its place? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.136.103.49 ( talk • contribs)
I have done a lot of thinking about fan death (probably too much) and i have talked to many koreans about it over the last three and a half years that i have been in korea. I guess, for me, it started when i called it a superstition a while back and got an earful. I was, at the time, totally perplexed that they (Koreans) whole heartedly believed in fan death. Having been here in korea for as long as I have now, i am more understanding of Korean (and Asian) culture so i accept their belief in fan death as a cute little quirk.
I re-wrote this article because i felt it needed more information. And honestly, it was hard for me to re-write it and keep the sarcasm out. I was going to write a rebuttal to each 'reason' for fan death, but every time i started a sentence, i seemed to start it sarcastically. Sarcasm is not needed on wikipedia, so I didn't write the rebuttal. And I won't. I can't. I mean, how do you respond to: "The fan 'uses up' the oxygen in the room and creates fatal levels of carbon dioxide." and not sound sarcastic? Where does the oxygen go? Where does the carbon dioxide come from? Wouldn't plants in your house counter the effects of the fan? What about the fan in your fridge? or the fan in your computer (if you leave your computer on at night)?
I have done a lot of reading on the subject and i came a cross an interesting article that suggested that the media reports fan death as a way to hide suicides, especially amongst the young. korea has a bad enough problem with their young killing themselves and if every case was reported in the news...well, we all know that suicides have a way of snowballing. So, maybe their belief in fan death is a good thing. Masterhatch
Surely the people who are most affected by suicides are the people closest to the victim, who wouldn't need the press to tell them the cause of death? 212.137.30.54
"Fans can cause hypothermia. As the metabolism slows down at night, one becomes more sensitive to temperature, and more prone to hypothermia. In other words, if the fan is left on all night in a sealed and enclosed room, it will lower the temperature of the room to the point that it can cause hypothermia."
This statement violates the Law of conservastion of Energy. If the fan is the only interaction between the system and the surrounds, a valid assumption in light of the statement "...in a sealed and enclosed room..." then the net result of the fans actions will be an increase in the total amount of energy in the room, which would result in a temperature increase (at a rate proportional to the fans energy output) rather than decrease. Fans do not have the effect of cooling a room, they only create airflow which increases the rate of convection from the hot body (the person) to the surrounds.
Well thats as close as I can come to explaining it with my own poor grasp of the topic, One might want to add it to the main article or something.
Smoove K 07:25, 13 March 2007 (UTC)
My father, who was born in the late 1930's and raised in Central Kentucky, USA, definitely the "backwoods", has very similar beliefs about Electric Fans; he won't get very specific, but I've heard him say all my life that you shouldn't leave fans on all night or you would wake up dead. I have no idea what his reasoning is, but I think it is possible that this might not be a Korean - Japanese only myth. Paganize ( talk) 08:21, 15 February 2010 (UTC)
I think it is both a myth and an urban legend. I don't feel that there was a need to remove all the "myths" from the article. Intertwining the usage of "myth" and "legend" makes for an easier read (grammatically speaking). Using similies in an article is a good way to break up any monotany. Kokiri, I am not saying that your edit is wrong, I am just saying that it was pointless as it is both a myth and an urban legend. Fans can't kill and we all know that. Whether it is defined as a "myth" or an "urban legend" makes no difference as it is both. Masterhatch 15 July 2005
I don't understand why you keep on calling it a myth when that is obviously in dispute. Why do you have to insist on writing from a western centric perspective? The facts should speak for themselves as indeed they do. Andrewrutherford 23:55, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
Is it really common in South Korea for the media to report a fan death when a gunshot is evident? I can understand reports when the cause of death is cardiac arrest, alcohol overdose etc but when there is a gunshot???
I was recently discussing this via email with a friend, his (humorous) comments follow:
"The explanation of fan death is accepted by many Korean medical professionals. In summer, mainstream Korean news sources regularly report on cases of fan death, even if more likely causes (e.g. heart attack, ****gunshot****, alcohol poisoning) are evident."
I'll just say that again. GUNSHOT.
Note to self: never seek medical attention in S. Korea. "Please help, I've been shot!" "Yes, I see. We'd better check for fans!"
Easiest job in the world: S. Korean homicide detective. "Wow, he's got a knife right through his skull." "Yes, I see. But I don't think that's what killed him... aha! A fan! Well, off to the bar."
-- Punkgeek 19:59, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
Another case solved! Poorsod 20:57, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
Pop media may just say "died of gun shot wounds," and this wiki article uses "cause of death" primarily in that informal sense. But in clinical terms, cause of death is a series of events which end in death, divided into proximate causes, immediate causes, and mechanisms of death. A gunshot wound might be the proximate cause, the mechanism might be cardiorespiratory arrest, and immediate causes of death might include contributory complicating factors (blood loss, lung collapse, etc.) So it's theoretically possible to include fan-related complications in a gun death. For a contrived example, if the victim lay in front of a fan blowing cold air after the gunshot, hypothermia could be listed as an immediate cause. In this frat hazing incident, "the cause of death was cardiac dysrhythmia due to electrolyte imbalance from water intoxication. A contributing factor was environmental hypothermia." It noted separately that the deceased was soaked in water, with 40 F degree air blown on him with window fans. So fans contributed, and were noted, but were not in the cause of death summary. - Agyle 20:10, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
For example, it might be explained that the fan lowers the oxygen level in the room while raising carbon dioxide levels, which could prove fatal to a sleeping person already weakened by hypothermia.
How exactly does a fan lower the oxygen level? if anything the circulation of air would raise it by drawing in fresh air. Or do they use combustion engine fans in Korea? Martin - The non-blue non-moose 08:20, 14 August 2005 (UTC)
Why is the fan death found in the category:logical fallacies? It certainly contains a few, but is not one in and of itself.
I added something about the legend spreading in the Far East because when I lived in China between 2000 and 2003 I was frequently warned of this phenomenon by local Chinese and told that they heard it was a big problem in Japan.
Some people mentioned Korea, but for whatever reason all the Chinese people I discussed this with seemed to think they were avoiding something that was wiping out large numbers of Japanese. One can speculate that this is some kind of nervous reaction to industrialization and the introduction of electric appliances to all aspects of life, but whatever the reason this legend is thriving in Beijing and at least known in Hong Kong.
I recently found out a Vietnamese acquaintance believes in it. She is in her early 40's and had been taught it her whole life. (in Vietnam) Keytud ( talk) 03:25, 4 September 2011 (UTC)
I am a Korean and lived in Korea for some 20 years. But I think there are not many people (at least close to me) attributing fan death to lowered 'oxyzen level' or 'room temperature' as mentioned in the belief section of this article. (We do learn the laws of thermodynamics in the high school.) The argument that I mostly heard is as follows: "A human body emits heat, hence the air near the person becomes warmer. But a fan disperses the warm air, thereby making the air near the body cool. If this continues, the body temperature becomes lower than it would be without the fan." As you know, it is how a fan works. Of course, the body temperature dropping is much milder than how many Koreans think; but it exists. So I think it is rather an exaggeration than a myth. -- Acepectif 04:57, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
this article is hilarious! is it intentionally so?
Recently another editor and I have disagreed about whether it is proper to call it an urban legend/myth, versus a "reported phenomenon". Note that four of the five professional medical opinions, as stated in the article, approach it skeptically, in addition to Cecil Adams, a respected myth-discreditor at the Straight Dope (article available here). As such, it is dishonest to lend undue weight to the position that Fan Death is a real phenomenon that causes deaths, which is in turn a violation of WP:NPOV. If anyone disagrees, please communicate with me via my talk page. -- Kuzaar- T- C- 12:53, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
Why is this guy considered an expert? He appears to believe in fan death, and he doesn't understand that fans don't decrease the temperature. I'm going to add a little note, but I think he should be removed from the experts list. Rotiro
I am trying to decide which is more absurd, this, or the notion that Koreans "need" kimchi because they (of all humans) lack a particular digestive enzyme, and the spicy kimchi helps do the same job.
Isaac Crumm
04:59, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
I removed his quote because the cited page [2] actually states that Dr Yeon denies saying it. I tried to find if he said something similar in Korean news but I couldn't. 218.153.152.174 ( talk) 18:03, 3 July 2008 (UTC)
Is there any evidence that the point of a timer is to prevent fan death? I'm not Korean and I wish my fan had a timer because I only want the fan to cool me as I try to go to sleep; I don't want it wasting electricity all night. 61.69.246.171 22:42, 4 November 2006 (UTC) I am an American living in Korea for over a year and I have been told on many occasions that the timer was to make sure someone would not be in "harms way" if they fell asleep with the fan on. July 9, 2007, the news reported another death by fan. The victim was a 60 year old woman. Those who believe this urban legend usually refuse to justify how it happens. If a doctor says it's true, Koreans don't ask questions. I recently went to the hospital with the flu and the doctor was offended when I asked him what was in the shot he was about to give me. The Korean with me told me not to ask questions. I left without getting a shot.
The several quotes from "experts" should be removed from the article unless they are cited to a verifiable and reliable source. Apparently all the quotes are from one online newspaper article. As presented, it looks like only one expert is attributed to the article and the other quotes are just hanging there unattributed, which makes them look like personal communications to the editor or original research. In any event, one newspaper article is not sufficient support for an article about something which appears to be physically impossible. Edison 16:29, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
You seem to be under the misapprehension that this Wikipedia article is presenting the idea of fan-death as fact. It is definitely an urban myth. Any citation required only needs to verify that it is, indeed, an urban myth. It's quite obvious that it's impossible. Some more cross-linking to science article would be good though. Poorsod 21:01, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
I distinctly remember a case in the August of 2001, if I am not mistaken. A standard 3 minute report by a male reporter on the 9 PM MBC뉴스데스크 related the stark details of a man who stayed in a 여관 room by himself in Gyeonggi-do. He fell asleep and died after having left the air conditioner on all night. I distinctly remember the tone of the report -- quite shrill and alarmist. The air conditioners are coming to get us, was the long-and-short of it. For some time I thought it was all tickety-boo and never gave it a second thought until I saw the 'collaboration of the month' news. A few of my leftist friends in Busan think that reporters at MBC, KBS, and SBS deliberately recycle such topics every summer on slow news days. It shows that even those who have training in critical thinking can be fooled simply because it is the 'infallible' and 'trustworthy' major media outlets of Korea that report such clap-trap. Mumun 21:15, 12 December 2006 (UTC)
Could you please keep the use of hangeul to the Korean language pages. '뉴스데스크' means 'Newsdesk' and '여관' is 'yeogwan'; a kind of cheap and often unsanitary Korean inn. Rianteacher ( talk) 08:10, 14 June 2010 (UTC)
It seems that there are some 'weasel-words' in the article, which may detract from communicating ideas properly. It seems that there is a task before us here to reword or re-express some ideas in the article without the statement "It is believed". I guess when they state "it is believed..." the authors are telling us about the main assertions of those who believe in something that apparently doesn't exist. However, let's try and reword the "it is believed statements..." so that they aren't weasel-worded. Mumun 22:23, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
I stumbled across this entry and it's the first I've heard of it, probably because I don't know anything about Korean culture. However, I do know a bit about Chinese culture and I can tell you that it's not uncommon in China for people to claim that leaving a fan on in your room all night long is not healthy. Kill you? I haven't heard that extreme, but definitely unhealthy to the point that you'll get sick because of it. Thus I wonder if there is some connection to traditional Chinese medicine. Obviously this would be an extension of a traditional belief since the personal electric fan hasn't been around for more than a 120 years or so. Kongjie 00:03, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
This is a joke right? No way anybody could believe this crap.
No, it will not. Even being naked in the middle of a snowstorm will not cause a cold, as it has nothing to do with temperature. 213.167.158.254 ( talk) 16:38, 22 March 2010 (UTC)
Of course, there is little scientific evidence, but whenever I leave the airconditioning on at night, my parents and/or grandparents always warn me that I should make sure the wind does not blow directly in my face when I sleep, or else I will develop a condition known as "歪嘴" (bent-mouth?), where my facial nerves will become damaged and my face will permanently be in a slant-mouthed expression. I don't actually believe it to be the case though. I think it's all urban myth. -- 李博杰 | — Talk contribs email 14:30, 10 June 2010 (UTC)
The article says:
That fans cause hypothermia. 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 vapourisation as perspiration evaporates from the body. Furthermore, hypothermia occurs only when the body's core temperature drops below normal, and will not generally be caused simply by cooling of the skin or decrease in the body's surface temperature.
This lesson is thermodynamics is a red herring. The mechanism by which fans cool the body is not that important. They do cool the body. Cooling the body too much leads to hypothermia. The bit about core temperature versus surface temperature is another red herring - low core temperature is reached by lowering the surface temperature. Under some (perhaps contrived) conditions a fan could be a contributing factor to a death by hypothermia. Debunking should focus on showing that those conditions are unlikely (people don't run fans in very cold rooms etc.). Haukur 17:17, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
I found the first link at the references section is dead. I can't seem to edit it properly though. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Namitsu ( talk • contribs) 14:42, 21 April 2007 (UTC).
These arguments should urgently be added to the text:
Even when there is a statistical relationship between dying and having the electric fan on, this does not imply that the fan causes the death. The situation resembles strongly the old joke about the alcoholic who claims: "I must have a leather allergy... Every times when I wake up in my bed and still have my boots on, I have such a headache..." People those are sick or old enough to be about to die, tend to have problems with their body heat regulation or fever, i.e. they either chill or sweat in situations where healthy people won't. Thus deadly sick people those sweat turn on the fan as a last relief before they die. It would be certainly easy to find exactly the same statistical relationship between dying and using a hot water bottle or drinking a lot of hot or cold beverages before dying in bed. Lethal sickness makes people do such things before dying, not vice versa.
See e.g. here: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0370-1662(1904)73%3C361%3AARITHR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8
Plausible is also that the origin of the myth may have been propaganda of the North Korean dictatorship to make the people save electricity, because electric power is extremely scarce in North Korea by the lack of intact power stations.
See e.g. these notice to get an idea how poorly their electricity network works:
In ancient Chinese and Japanese mythology the (manual) fan symbolizes things like authority and command or divine power, and only royals had the power to own slaves or servants to get fanned by them even during night. Thus it would make sense that in former times kings spreaded the superstition that it would bring bad luck when subordinate persons arrogated to let themselves fan during night, which was considered a violation of their power symbol code (much like when a citizen would come in mind to wear a crown without being the king). Later this superstition may have been tradited to the electric fan.
See e.g.:
I have seen no evidence that any group of people other than those that live in Korea and who believe in this urban legend hold the belief that it's dangerous to sleep in a room with the fan on. As such, I've removed the weasel words template from the specific mention of "Koreans" and replaced it with a more specific phrasing, per above. -- Kuzaar- T- C- 12:52, 1 August 2007 (UTC)
Please list some doctors or reporters (or anyone) who "have suggested that their unique physiology renders them susceptible to fan death". — Omegatron 15:17, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
I lived in Korea for about a year, and never saw a fan with a sleep timer, and the fan I bought didn't have a sleep timer.. also, the adults working at the school I taught at didn't believe in fan death, although they all spent 10+ years living abroad, and I never talked to anyone else about it
Anyway, I think we should get rid of "Fans manufactured and 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." from the first part of the article
As an Asian, I was always told not to sleep with the window open as the wind might paralyze and kill you - of course, I pretty ignore that "advice" even at 14 weighing and rejecting that as nonsense.
But I think it might be from Polynesian or South Asia countries where people might tend to sleep outdoors (before air conditioning of course) and that some ill wind might paralyze or kill you ... perhaps related to hypothermia - that while you might fall asleep when it's warmer but then if the air temperature drops?
Isn't there some medical condition related to stiffening of joints or muscles from wind?
I think the fan thing is just an extension of that - I know some people defintely do not like a steady wind blowing towards their stomach. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jbelkin800 ( talk • contribs) 22:41, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
There have been confirmed deaths as a result of building mold in the United States. While this is the first time I recalling having heard of anything exactly like "fan death", it doesn't seem entirely illogical to suppose that if one were living in a dwelling that had mold conditions similar to those in build that have killed, the use of a fan in that enclosed area could perhaps make the exposure worse. A website that actually addresses the issue of "fan death" directly has many far-fetched suggestions like hypothermia (in an enclosed room?), spirits, and vacuum over the face due to moving air (!) O_o so I am going to guess that not a lot of serious scientific attention has yet been paid to this subject... but sleeping close to the ground, and a fan close to the ground preventing the settling of dust could also result in increased inhalation of particulate matter. The chemical irritants present in a building with toxic mold cause a variety of health issues.
"Valley fever" is particularly well known here in Arizona to be the result of breathing in the crud in the air on a dry, dusty, windy day. The Santa Ana wind in California also once had a similar reputation with the Spanish colonists. Considering the effects of certain windy weather patterns and the effects of certain types of indoor pollution are well known, its very easy to see how there may be a tiny nugget of truth at the bottom of the larger myth that needs to be studied. Zaphraud 01:12, 27 October 2007 (UTC)
I'm a South Korean, and my family also has used the function in summer nights. However, it's not because of the only "fan death" belief. My family uses the function because of not only "fan death" belief but also other various reasons:
I want to ask you not to think a "timer snob" of Korean fans as "just" a equipment to prevent "fan death". ― 韓斌/Yes0song ( 談笑 筆跡 다지모) 07:16, 19 February 2008 (UTC)
No offense, but sounds to me like "air-conditioningitis" is just another made up condition. -- 86.135.87.199 ( talk) 02:23, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/elecprii.html Electricity Prices for Industry (U.S. Dollars per Kilowatthour) United States 0.061 - Korea, South 0.065 -- Random832 ( contribs) 16:32, 29 July 2008 (UTC)
A google search for "냉방병" seems to turn up at least a few sites that identify the disease so named with Legionellosis, which according to the article, can be associated with air conditioning systems in some cases (not, however, in a way that makes sense to jump from there to fans). -- Random832 ( contribs) 20:43, 29 July 2008 (UTC)
This is where having to make sure that everything is sourced to the hilt is a major draw back. It's obvious to me why the South Korean government promotes the notion of "fan death". Its to save electricity. The entire Korean peninsula has huge energy needs and rather limited production capacity. While this seems obvious, its difficult to find a specific source to back it up. Can anyone find one?
supersoulty ( talk) 06:50, 29 June 2008 (UTC)
I'm curious if anyone has considered ozone possibly being produced by a low-quality fan's motor brushes in an enclosed environment... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.113.238.183 ( talk) 06:44, 11 November 2009 (UTC)
What I don't get is... why would you ever run a fan in a closed room? I don't know what the weather is like in Korea, but if I'm running a fan in a Minnesota summer, its because its 80-100F outside, and even hotter inside, with upwards of 98% humidity. All my doors and windows are wide open in a desperate attempt to circulate cooler air in from outside and force hot air out. A closed room is only going to get hotter and more humid due to your body heat, humid breath and profuse sweat, not to mention the heat the fan motor is making... The only reason I'd have a room in any way closed is if there is an air conditioner, and that's another matter entirely. "Air conditioner death" is at least vaguely conceivable, seeing as it is actively lowering the temperature of a room. A fan alone can only equalize temperatures, and in fact will always raise temperatures due to the motor. If anything, Hyperthermia is a more likely cause of death... 64.83.197.250 ( talk) 05:25, 24 May 2012 (UTC)
US Patent 6006524
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6006524/description.html
"When an electric fan or air conditioner is kept operating during the time of sleeping, the user may suffer from evaporation of moisture from the body and drop of the body temperature and thus may be taken with an airconditioningitis or cold. When an electric fan or air conditioner is operated for a long time, it may cause oxygen defiiency in a narrow and closed room, claiming the life of the person sleeping in the room."
Interesting that this nonsense made it into the patent system. 72.138.38.71 ( talk) 21:53, 23 July 2008 (UTC)
Is there any polling data indicating what portion of South Koreans actually believe this? -- YixilTesiphon Talk Contribs 17:07, 20 August 2008 (UTC)
The official warning states that 20 persons have died from "fan death" during two years in South Korea. That is just not significant - I think the tea cosy death rate is higher ... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tobixen ( talk • contribs) 20:51, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
Under beliefs bullet point 6 should loose be lose? ( 219.89.70.24 ( talk) 21:41, 11 January 2009 (UTC))
I just heard that the January 2009 issue of Esquire had a blurb about fan death. Can anyone confirm this? -- Zenpickle ( talk) 17:23, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
Yeah, it was from an oversea student learning about the fan death myth while staying with a foster family in South Korea or something like that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.13.101.85 ( talk) 23:09, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
Research suggests that fan use may be a contributing factor in heat-related deaths such as fatal cases of hyperthermia.
No way. This is deceptive, the linked article [12] barely even mentions fans and absolutely does not name it as a contributing factor (although it mentions many). Instead a CDC comment on the article states that "fans may not prevent hypothermia". A very different thing. In any case only four cases are described and only two of them mentioned fans. It would be silly to treat these as data points and sillier still to draw any conclusion from them. Not to mention that if you were you would be better off claiming a protective effect - that fans prevent heatstroke death. Since during a heat wave the number of people using fans is likely to be much greater than 50%. Ergo the population of "surviving fan users" would be much larger than that of "surviving non-fan users". Anyway it's nonsense to claim that this usefully talks about fans or fan death.
Texts on industrial hygiene and ventilation will describe conditions when the use of a fan will increase a worker's heat load. Those conditions include very high temperatures found in foundries and similar industries like heat treating metals. Similar problems occur with high heat and high humidity.
Cite needed here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.248.171.144 ( talk) 01:16, 3 July 2009 (UTC)
I have read the supposed sources and found no support for claims of hyperthermia caused by fans. I have deleted the false or misleading portions of the section. A fan can make one hotter if the ambient air is both hot enough (>99F / 37C) and the humidity is high enough that evaporative cooling is ineffective. Otherwise having a fan will cool a person by convection and evaporation. Unless the air temperature is quite low (<65F) and there is insufficient cover hypothermia is impossible. The sources cited in the deleted section show that sick (esp. hypertensive and congestive heat failure) and elderly people may be more heat sensitive than others, but do not show that fans are not helpful in cooling overheated bodies which are not dehydrated and are capable of producing sweat. There is absolutely no scientific doubt nor room for doubt that "fan death" is a complete myth. The myth likely arose from the real danger of carbon monoxide poisoning from charcoal heaters in early/mid 20th century Korea and was generalized by ignorant people to all sorts of climate control devices.
Enon (
talk)
04:54, 17 July 2009 (UTC)
Well, check out the EPA's Excessive Heat Events Guidebook, and especially "Appendix B: Use of Portable Electric Fans During Excessive Heat Events". I quote:
Let's not be too quick to dismiss the potential health risks here. -- Avenue ( talk) 11:06, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
I went ahead and promoted the hyperthermia content nearer the top of the page, as I believe it is credible. Which is correct, 90°F or 99°F? Certainly the latter makes sense, as it is above normal human body temperature. The former is uncomfortable, but will a fan actually make it life-threatening? I think it is important to state (briefly and concisely) the lifesaving biological fact ahead of the entertaining urban legend. I couldn't figure out how to link to the bookmark further down the page where this issue is already discussed. Yak99 ( talk) 20:18, 7 May 2011 (UTC)yak99
This article has some far fetched "theories" as to how a fan might kill someone. Totally false. This myth has absolutely no foundation in truth. I've slept with a fan on for 15 years now, and I've never died from it. I know many, many people who also do this, and none have died. There is none, 0, zip, zilch, nada fact involved, and that should be pointed out more clearly. The conditions in which a fan might actually lead to death are so extreme, and so unusual, that the person would die without the fan at all. ReignMan ( talk) 02:32, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
Yup, there is a similar situation in parts of China. It is literally like telling someone that gunshot wounds aren't a health concern; the conversation is not going to end untill:
a) you give up and promise to take caution with fans or b) they decide you suffer from some kind of retardation or mental problem 213.167.158.254 ( talk) 17:07, 22 March 2010 (UTC)
"Furthermore, atomic oxygen is highly reactive and would produce sharp-smelling ozone, if it was produced by some mechanism. It also ignores the nearly universal human tendency to wake up while being suffocated in a moment of sleep."
I don't think this article accurately reflects how ridiculous fan death is. This is the country that houses leading high tech corporations like Samsung and LG, and they widely believe that falling asleep with a fan on will kill you. Subbevil ( talk) 19:43, 11 May 2011 (UTC)
The section I removed and Vou replaced, discusses research on fans and deaths. It does not discuss Korean phenomenon of "fan death." This is a subtle but important distinction. This article about a belief that fans can kill someone if left on while they are asleep, the research I deleted is about the effectiveness of fans at cooling the body and has nothing to do with the belief that fans can kill. To use it in this article is original research. -- Daniel 15:26, 2 July 2011 (UTC)
There is NO scientific evidence that disproves the idea of "fan death." I think the stance that it is absolutely an urban legend is an opinion, not fact. Therefore, to avoid bias, the article should stop referring to it as an urban legend. Also the viewpoints of the EPA and Korean government should NOT be suppressed in favor of the dominant public opinion from non-Koreans that fan death is absolutely false. There is no evidence it's absolutely false and there is evidence that supports fan death has scientific basis. So it absolutely MUST at the very least be treated as an "opinion" rather than fact that it's false. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Stupaddaso ( talk • contribs) 07:30, 28 October 2011
There is nothing to disprove that Koreans (and ONLY Koreans) are being eaten by snotmonsters that steal the air out of a room whenever a fan is on either. Does not make it real. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.75.61.245 ( talk) 06:50, 25 February 2013 (UTC)
I see the "Beliefs" section has been tagged as containing original research for about 10 months now. I let the very few beliefs with inline references remain, but I have moved beliefs lacking verifiability here for now:
This section possibly contains
original research. (June 2011) |
Anyone who cares to reliably source these can certainly put them back into the article. Cheers. -- Ds13 ( talk) 16:50, 6 April 2012 (UTC)
So just to be clear: switching on a fan can in fact cause death by hyperthermia (not hypothermia), in cases where the room is unventilated and extremely hot and the person is, say, passed out drunk, is that correct? According to at least one Korean person, the Korean popular belief is that fans can cause death in summer and the room is unventilated. If that's correct, then this is not an urban legend, or a least not much of one.
Now certainly someone with a blog is not a Reliable Source. But I would say the burden of proof is on the claim that the Korean beliefs are unreasonable. This article relies largely on one (primary) source, this is what it says:
Well, of course that's a pretty silly thing to say, for one release from one government agency. What it presumably ought to say is something like this:
OK, so I have no idea what those 20 reported cases were all about. On the other hand, it's pretty clear the idea that fan death is an urban legend lacks WP:Verifiability. I'd guess that (hyperthermic) fan death does occasionally happen, and there is no more than a popular misconception on the causes and nature of the phenomenon rather than on the existence of the phenomenon. Again, the burden of verifiability is on the content of the article, the claim that fan death is an urban legend.
— Ashley Y 03:58, 2 July 2012 (UTC)
The article subject is "fan death". Therefore all information about potential health hazard is valid for inclusion. If you want to write about myth exclusively , please make a proper unambiguous article title, such as Korean belief in fan death. Staszek Lem ( talk) 19:25, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
Last sentence of the first paragraph. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.48.174.51 ( talk) 12:45, 23 August 2012 (UTC)
Hello, as a French reader, I found this article by chance. I am amazed, among plenty of hypotheses proposed here that the hypothesis of white noise has not been proposed ; It seems that a fan emits a sort of
white noise.
This noise could according to some authors* facilitate sleep. And white noise can have a calming effect on the baby.
This is only a hypothesis, but maybe in a few cases, the presence of a fan could "facilitate" one sudden infant death syndrome ?, or forward an adult?
Sources :
Vicente-Torres MA, Gil-Loyzaga P. Noise stimulation decreases the concentration of norepinephrine in the rat cochlea. Neurosci Lett 1999, 14; 266. -
* Southwick SM, Bremner JD, Rasmusson A, Morgan CA, Arnsten A, Charney DS. Role of norepinephrine in the pathophysiology and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder ; Biol Psychiatry 1999, 46: 1192-1204 (
abstract)). Of course, this is only a hypothesis, moreover non-exclusive, and should first verify that excess mortality is truly associated with the use of a fan during sleep --
Lamiot (
talk)
15:31, 2 December 2012 (UTC)
As far as I knew, fan death was only Korea. Someone added that it also included Japan. I have been unable to find anything in regards to Japan also believing this. Until a source is mentioned, i am reverting it back to "South Korea". Masterhatch 10 July 2005
I don't have a source, but I lived in Japan and was often told that I would die if I left the fan on overnight. This is obviously untrue because I've slept with a fan on every night for my entire life (mostly), and am still apparently alive. So maybe the media doesn't perpetuiate the myth as much in Japan as in Korea, but there exist Japanese people that think fans kill you. (And heaters in the winter, for that matter. I think the cost of energy is just too high and "you're going to die" is more polite than "I don't want to pay for this".) Jrockway 17:17, 18 December 2005 (UTC)
The "Fan death" article in Japanese Wikipedia, the belief in Japan is also introduced. ― 韓斌/Yes0song ( 談笑 筆跡 다지모) 06:50, 19 February 2008 (UTC)
I am Japanese, and I have heard from my family not to leave the fan on while sleeping. I had thought this was a Japanese belief, since I never hear it in America. Looking at the Japanese wiki page shows that it is considered an urban legend of Japan and Korea. So I think we need to remove the statements like "never been reported or ever heard of in any other country including North Korea." 97.134.209.233 ( talk) 20:35, 19 December 2011 (UTC)
The first line of this section states "The genesis of the misconception is unclear, but fears about electric fans date almost to their introduction to Korea, with stories dating to the 1920s and 1930s warning of the risks of nausea, asphyxiation, and facial paralysis from this "new technology".[1][2]
The second part if this same section states that "There is a conspiracy theory that the South Korean government created or perpetuated the myth as propaganda to curb the energy consumption of South Korean households during the 1970s energy crisis,[1] which coincided with the rule of President Park Chung-hee, who named modernization and a self-reliant economy as his top goals in his Five Year Economic Development Plan.[3] That reports of fan death first appeared in the 1970s supports this theory.[4]
I may be making a comprehension mistake, but it looks to me as if this is saying the stories of fan death first appeared in the 1920s and 1930s, followed directly by it stating that stories of fan death first appeared in the 1970s. So... which is it? 72.197.38.228 ( talk) 11:20, 5 December 2013 (UTC)
I'm removing two sentences on the vital importance of fans in zero gravity environments. It's interesting, but simply not related to fan death in this article's context; it's actually the opposite in a sense. There are also many other situations in which fans are necessary for safety or survival. Just posting here in case anyone wants to make a case for continued inclusion. The sentences in question are:
Fans are necessary in zero-gravity environments, where exhaled gases of different densities do not rise or fall away from the person breathing but instead mix more slowly via diffusion. Sleeping on the International Space Station without a fan or ducted airflow would eventually cause asphyxiation.
Agyle ( talk) 08:41, 8 December 2013 (UTC)
The very last line of this site says:
I have been in South Korea for over 3 and a half years and i can tell you that the belief in fan death is just as strong now as it was before the internet ruled the day. it is actually probably stronger because of the net as there are numerous korean sites that promote fan death and anything written about fan death by non-koreans is considered garbage. I have only ever met ONE korean who doesn't believe in fan death. she doesn't believe in it because she grew up in canada and moved to korea as an adult.
Anyways, my points is, that last line about koreans starting to realise fan death isn't true should be changed. Their belief is only growing.
The very last section contains excerpts of opinions from three medical doctors, two of which are licensed to practice in South Korea. The section is tagged for inappropriate tone, which I am not questioning or challenging. Two of the three excerpts have reference citations. That is good. The third one, from a South Korean physician, does not. I refer to this:
- 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.
Given much of the unscientific material in Wikipedia and some of the if-y portions of this article, I would prefer that Dr. Lee Yoon-song's sensible statement be retained rather than removed from the article. I have no idea how to find the source, but would encourage anyone else who can, do so.
It would be sad, and misleading for WP readers for the section to be removed. -- FeralOink ( talk) 00:45, 30 July 2013 (UTC)
If any budding Koreanologists want an obscure topic of inquiry, I recommend combing the literature for references to illness-causing winds in Korea and area folk beliefs and religions. In my readings and travels, I have come across the idea in different places that ancient Chinese, Austronesians, and Hmong associated bad winds with certain diseases. It would be really interesting to get some accounts of how exactly people think this works.
I also suspect that this fear of electric fans exists outside of Asia, as I was told in rural Panay Island in the Philippines that using electric fans was the cause of certain illnesses, that "the air gets inside you".
Dwarfkingdom ( talk) 05:29, 3 January 2015 (UTC)
Reference 5 which is supposed to lead to the Excessive heat events guidebook from the US EPA is a reliable source but when you click on the link it takes you to the EPA's page about heat islands. I could not find the pdf which would supposedly have Annex B in it that you reference. Only 5 out of your 14 sources are considered reliable sources, the other 9 are pulled from newspaper articles and blogs.
In the hypothermia section, second paragraph you make no references but start the paragraph with the phrase "simple physics" if this is so simple then there should be some journal article about it. I assume that you are referring to the simple physics of thermodynamics in which if people were to keep a heat pump (fan) with no outlet then the heat would build up in the room. You could have referenced: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1228&context=icec, which is from the University of Purdue's School of Engineering. Also in this section you state that "few people would keep a fan running in a room that is cold enough to induce hypothermia" I feel like that is your opinion and cannot be stated as a fact.
In the asphyxiation section you reference an article from a source called Straight Dope to disprove the theory of running out of oxygen in a closed room. I feel like this could be challenged with a simple model of the room, an averaged sized person and breathing rates which could be referenced by a medical journal. BrianaKayPhillips ( talk) 18:45, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
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I'd heard 'fan death' started as a euphemism for suicide, which is a taboo subject in ROK. Can anyone corroborate this? It seems like the article should mention this, if there's sources for it. Devgirl ( talk) 22:08, 16 May 2018 (UTC)
The result of the move request was: Not moved. A consensus to not move this page. ( non-admin closure) – Ammarpad ( talk) 15:42, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
Fan death → Fan death theory – The original Korean name for the subject of the page is "선풍기 사망설", literally meaning "Fan Death Theory". Changing the page name to "Fan death theory" would more accurately reflect what the subject is actually known in South Korea. Aceus0shrifter ( talk) 14:47, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
"CISS" is in a quotation, but there is no explanation of what it means. I searched for a little while on the internet and could not find any fitting explanation. Can some-one please explain it? Kdammers ( talk) 12:09, 29 May 2020 (UTC)
References
This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 1 |
This wikipedia article somehow have recently started a dispute in the Korean Internet on fan death, and Yonhapnews wrote a newspaper article about it today. It would be a nice addition to the article. [1] It includes opinions of several Korean medical experts, most of which says there are no proof of the fan death. It concludes that autopsy of 'fan death victims' is required to know for sure. (Koreans usually are reluctant to approve an autopsy of their deceased family members.) 218.153.152.174 ( talk) 04:02, 16 July 2008 (UTC)
The article quoted here is now 10 years old, so not really representative of modern Korea. Is there some new evidence that could be included in its place? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.136.103.49 ( talk • contribs)
I have done a lot of thinking about fan death (probably too much) and i have talked to many koreans about it over the last three and a half years that i have been in korea. I guess, for me, it started when i called it a superstition a while back and got an earful. I was, at the time, totally perplexed that they (Koreans) whole heartedly believed in fan death. Having been here in korea for as long as I have now, i am more understanding of Korean (and Asian) culture so i accept their belief in fan death as a cute little quirk.
I re-wrote this article because i felt it needed more information. And honestly, it was hard for me to re-write it and keep the sarcasm out. I was going to write a rebuttal to each 'reason' for fan death, but every time i started a sentence, i seemed to start it sarcastically. Sarcasm is not needed on wikipedia, so I didn't write the rebuttal. And I won't. I can't. I mean, how do you respond to: "The fan 'uses up' the oxygen in the room and creates fatal levels of carbon dioxide." and not sound sarcastic? Where does the oxygen go? Where does the carbon dioxide come from? Wouldn't plants in your house counter the effects of the fan? What about the fan in your fridge? or the fan in your computer (if you leave your computer on at night)?
I have done a lot of reading on the subject and i came a cross an interesting article that suggested that the media reports fan death as a way to hide suicides, especially amongst the young. korea has a bad enough problem with their young killing themselves and if every case was reported in the news...well, we all know that suicides have a way of snowballing. So, maybe their belief in fan death is a good thing. Masterhatch
Surely the people who are most affected by suicides are the people closest to the victim, who wouldn't need the press to tell them the cause of death? 212.137.30.54
"Fans can cause hypothermia. As the metabolism slows down at night, one becomes more sensitive to temperature, and more prone to hypothermia. In other words, if the fan is left on all night in a sealed and enclosed room, it will lower the temperature of the room to the point that it can cause hypothermia."
This statement violates the Law of conservastion of Energy. If the fan is the only interaction between the system and the surrounds, a valid assumption in light of the statement "...in a sealed and enclosed room..." then the net result of the fans actions will be an increase in the total amount of energy in the room, which would result in a temperature increase (at a rate proportional to the fans energy output) rather than decrease. Fans do not have the effect of cooling a room, they only create airflow which increases the rate of convection from the hot body (the person) to the surrounds.
Well thats as close as I can come to explaining it with my own poor grasp of the topic, One might want to add it to the main article or something.
Smoove K 07:25, 13 March 2007 (UTC)
My father, who was born in the late 1930's and raised in Central Kentucky, USA, definitely the "backwoods", has very similar beliefs about Electric Fans; he won't get very specific, but I've heard him say all my life that you shouldn't leave fans on all night or you would wake up dead. I have no idea what his reasoning is, but I think it is possible that this might not be a Korean - Japanese only myth. Paganize ( talk) 08:21, 15 February 2010 (UTC)
I think it is both a myth and an urban legend. I don't feel that there was a need to remove all the "myths" from the article. Intertwining the usage of "myth" and "legend" makes for an easier read (grammatically speaking). Using similies in an article is a good way to break up any monotany. Kokiri, I am not saying that your edit is wrong, I am just saying that it was pointless as it is both a myth and an urban legend. Fans can't kill and we all know that. Whether it is defined as a "myth" or an "urban legend" makes no difference as it is both. Masterhatch 15 July 2005
I don't understand why you keep on calling it a myth when that is obviously in dispute. Why do you have to insist on writing from a western centric perspective? The facts should speak for themselves as indeed they do. Andrewrutherford 23:55, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
Is it really common in South Korea for the media to report a fan death when a gunshot is evident? I can understand reports when the cause of death is cardiac arrest, alcohol overdose etc but when there is a gunshot???
I was recently discussing this via email with a friend, his (humorous) comments follow:
"The explanation of fan death is accepted by many Korean medical professionals. In summer, mainstream Korean news sources regularly report on cases of fan death, even if more likely causes (e.g. heart attack, ****gunshot****, alcohol poisoning) are evident."
I'll just say that again. GUNSHOT.
Note to self: never seek medical attention in S. Korea. "Please help, I've been shot!" "Yes, I see. We'd better check for fans!"
Easiest job in the world: S. Korean homicide detective. "Wow, he's got a knife right through his skull." "Yes, I see. But I don't think that's what killed him... aha! A fan! Well, off to the bar."
-- Punkgeek 19:59, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
Another case solved! Poorsod 20:57, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
Pop media may just say "died of gun shot wounds," and this wiki article uses "cause of death" primarily in that informal sense. But in clinical terms, cause of death is a series of events which end in death, divided into proximate causes, immediate causes, and mechanisms of death. A gunshot wound might be the proximate cause, the mechanism might be cardiorespiratory arrest, and immediate causes of death might include contributory complicating factors (blood loss, lung collapse, etc.) So it's theoretically possible to include fan-related complications in a gun death. For a contrived example, if the victim lay in front of a fan blowing cold air after the gunshot, hypothermia could be listed as an immediate cause. In this frat hazing incident, "the cause of death was cardiac dysrhythmia due to electrolyte imbalance from water intoxication. A contributing factor was environmental hypothermia." It noted separately that the deceased was soaked in water, with 40 F degree air blown on him with window fans. So fans contributed, and were noted, but were not in the cause of death summary. - Agyle 20:10, 4 September 2007 (UTC)
For example, it might be explained that the fan lowers the oxygen level in the room while raising carbon dioxide levels, which could prove fatal to a sleeping person already weakened by hypothermia.
How exactly does a fan lower the oxygen level? if anything the circulation of air would raise it by drawing in fresh air. Or do they use combustion engine fans in Korea? Martin - The non-blue non-moose 08:20, 14 August 2005 (UTC)
Why is the fan death found in the category:logical fallacies? It certainly contains a few, but is not one in and of itself.
I added something about the legend spreading in the Far East because when I lived in China between 2000 and 2003 I was frequently warned of this phenomenon by local Chinese and told that they heard it was a big problem in Japan.
Some people mentioned Korea, but for whatever reason all the Chinese people I discussed this with seemed to think they were avoiding something that was wiping out large numbers of Japanese. One can speculate that this is some kind of nervous reaction to industrialization and the introduction of electric appliances to all aspects of life, but whatever the reason this legend is thriving in Beijing and at least known in Hong Kong.
I recently found out a Vietnamese acquaintance believes in it. She is in her early 40's and had been taught it her whole life. (in Vietnam) Keytud ( talk) 03:25, 4 September 2011 (UTC)
I am a Korean and lived in Korea for some 20 years. But I think there are not many people (at least close to me) attributing fan death to lowered 'oxyzen level' or 'room temperature' as mentioned in the belief section of this article. (We do learn the laws of thermodynamics in the high school.) The argument that I mostly heard is as follows: "A human body emits heat, hence the air near the person becomes warmer. But a fan disperses the warm air, thereby making the air near the body cool. If this continues, the body temperature becomes lower than it would be without the fan." As you know, it is how a fan works. Of course, the body temperature dropping is much milder than how many Koreans think; but it exists. So I think it is rather an exaggeration than a myth. -- Acepectif 04:57, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
this article is hilarious! is it intentionally so?
Recently another editor and I have disagreed about whether it is proper to call it an urban legend/myth, versus a "reported phenomenon". Note that four of the five professional medical opinions, as stated in the article, approach it skeptically, in addition to Cecil Adams, a respected myth-discreditor at the Straight Dope (article available here). As such, it is dishonest to lend undue weight to the position that Fan Death is a real phenomenon that causes deaths, which is in turn a violation of WP:NPOV. If anyone disagrees, please communicate with me via my talk page. -- Kuzaar- T- C- 12:53, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
Why is this guy considered an expert? He appears to believe in fan death, and he doesn't understand that fans don't decrease the temperature. I'm going to add a little note, but I think he should be removed from the experts list. Rotiro
I am trying to decide which is more absurd, this, or the notion that Koreans "need" kimchi because they (of all humans) lack a particular digestive enzyme, and the spicy kimchi helps do the same job.
Isaac Crumm
04:59, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
I removed his quote because the cited page [2] actually states that Dr Yeon denies saying it. I tried to find if he said something similar in Korean news but I couldn't. 218.153.152.174 ( talk) 18:03, 3 July 2008 (UTC)
Is there any evidence that the point of a timer is to prevent fan death? I'm not Korean and I wish my fan had a timer because I only want the fan to cool me as I try to go to sleep; I don't want it wasting electricity all night. 61.69.246.171 22:42, 4 November 2006 (UTC) I am an American living in Korea for over a year and I have been told on many occasions that the timer was to make sure someone would not be in "harms way" if they fell asleep with the fan on. July 9, 2007, the news reported another death by fan. The victim was a 60 year old woman. Those who believe this urban legend usually refuse to justify how it happens. If a doctor says it's true, Koreans don't ask questions. I recently went to the hospital with the flu and the doctor was offended when I asked him what was in the shot he was about to give me. The Korean with me told me not to ask questions. I left without getting a shot.
The several quotes from "experts" should be removed from the article unless they are cited to a verifiable and reliable source. Apparently all the quotes are from one online newspaper article. As presented, it looks like only one expert is attributed to the article and the other quotes are just hanging there unattributed, which makes them look like personal communications to the editor or original research. In any event, one newspaper article is not sufficient support for an article about something which appears to be physically impossible. Edison 16:29, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
You seem to be under the misapprehension that this Wikipedia article is presenting the idea of fan-death as fact. It is definitely an urban myth. Any citation required only needs to verify that it is, indeed, an urban myth. It's quite obvious that it's impossible. Some more cross-linking to science article would be good though. Poorsod 21:01, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
I distinctly remember a case in the August of 2001, if I am not mistaken. A standard 3 minute report by a male reporter on the 9 PM MBC뉴스데스크 related the stark details of a man who stayed in a 여관 room by himself in Gyeonggi-do. He fell asleep and died after having left the air conditioner on all night. I distinctly remember the tone of the report -- quite shrill and alarmist. The air conditioners are coming to get us, was the long-and-short of it. For some time I thought it was all tickety-boo and never gave it a second thought until I saw the 'collaboration of the month' news. A few of my leftist friends in Busan think that reporters at MBC, KBS, and SBS deliberately recycle such topics every summer on slow news days. It shows that even those who have training in critical thinking can be fooled simply because it is the 'infallible' and 'trustworthy' major media outlets of Korea that report such clap-trap. Mumun 21:15, 12 December 2006 (UTC)
Could you please keep the use of hangeul to the Korean language pages. '뉴스데스크' means 'Newsdesk' and '여관' is 'yeogwan'; a kind of cheap and often unsanitary Korean inn. Rianteacher ( talk) 08:10, 14 June 2010 (UTC)
It seems that there are some 'weasel-words' in the article, which may detract from communicating ideas properly. It seems that there is a task before us here to reword or re-express some ideas in the article without the statement "It is believed". I guess when they state "it is believed..." the authors are telling us about the main assertions of those who believe in something that apparently doesn't exist. However, let's try and reword the "it is believed statements..." so that they aren't weasel-worded. Mumun 22:23, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
I stumbled across this entry and it's the first I've heard of it, probably because I don't know anything about Korean culture. However, I do know a bit about Chinese culture and I can tell you that it's not uncommon in China for people to claim that leaving a fan on in your room all night long is not healthy. Kill you? I haven't heard that extreme, but definitely unhealthy to the point that you'll get sick because of it. Thus I wonder if there is some connection to traditional Chinese medicine. Obviously this would be an extension of a traditional belief since the personal electric fan hasn't been around for more than a 120 years or so. Kongjie 00:03, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
This is a joke right? No way anybody could believe this crap.
No, it will not. Even being naked in the middle of a snowstorm will not cause a cold, as it has nothing to do with temperature. 213.167.158.254 ( talk) 16:38, 22 March 2010 (UTC)
Of course, there is little scientific evidence, but whenever I leave the airconditioning on at night, my parents and/or grandparents always warn me that I should make sure the wind does not blow directly in my face when I sleep, or else I will develop a condition known as "歪嘴" (bent-mouth?), where my facial nerves will become damaged and my face will permanently be in a slant-mouthed expression. I don't actually believe it to be the case though. I think it's all urban myth. -- 李博杰 | — Talk contribs email 14:30, 10 June 2010 (UTC)
The article says:
That fans cause hypothermia. 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 vapourisation as perspiration evaporates from the body. Furthermore, hypothermia occurs only when the body's core temperature drops below normal, and will not generally be caused simply by cooling of the skin or decrease in the body's surface temperature.
This lesson is thermodynamics is a red herring. The mechanism by which fans cool the body is not that important. They do cool the body. Cooling the body too much leads to hypothermia. The bit about core temperature versus surface temperature is another red herring - low core temperature is reached by lowering the surface temperature. Under some (perhaps contrived) conditions a fan could be a contributing factor to a death by hypothermia. Debunking should focus on showing that those conditions are unlikely (people don't run fans in very cold rooms etc.). Haukur 17:17, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
I found the first link at the references section is dead. I can't seem to edit it properly though. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Namitsu ( talk • contribs) 14:42, 21 April 2007 (UTC).
These arguments should urgently be added to the text:
Even when there is a statistical relationship between dying and having the electric fan on, this does not imply that the fan causes the death. The situation resembles strongly the old joke about the alcoholic who claims: "I must have a leather allergy... Every times when I wake up in my bed and still have my boots on, I have such a headache..." People those are sick or old enough to be about to die, tend to have problems with their body heat regulation or fever, i.e. they either chill or sweat in situations where healthy people won't. Thus deadly sick people those sweat turn on the fan as a last relief before they die. It would be certainly easy to find exactly the same statistical relationship between dying and using a hot water bottle or drinking a lot of hot or cold beverages before dying in bed. Lethal sickness makes people do such things before dying, not vice versa.
See e.g. here: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0370-1662(1904)73%3C361%3AARITHR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8
Plausible is also that the origin of the myth may have been propaganda of the North Korean dictatorship to make the people save electricity, because electric power is extremely scarce in North Korea by the lack of intact power stations.
See e.g. these notice to get an idea how poorly their electricity network works:
In ancient Chinese and Japanese mythology the (manual) fan symbolizes things like authority and command or divine power, and only royals had the power to own slaves or servants to get fanned by them even during night. Thus it would make sense that in former times kings spreaded the superstition that it would bring bad luck when subordinate persons arrogated to let themselves fan during night, which was considered a violation of their power symbol code (much like when a citizen would come in mind to wear a crown without being the king). Later this superstition may have been tradited to the electric fan.
See e.g.:
I have seen no evidence that any group of people other than those that live in Korea and who believe in this urban legend hold the belief that it's dangerous to sleep in a room with the fan on. As such, I've removed the weasel words template from the specific mention of "Koreans" and replaced it with a more specific phrasing, per above. -- Kuzaar- T- C- 12:52, 1 August 2007 (UTC)
Please list some doctors or reporters (or anyone) who "have suggested that their unique physiology renders them susceptible to fan death". — Omegatron 15:17, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
I lived in Korea for about a year, and never saw a fan with a sleep timer, and the fan I bought didn't have a sleep timer.. also, the adults working at the school I taught at didn't believe in fan death, although they all spent 10+ years living abroad, and I never talked to anyone else about it
Anyway, I think we should get rid of "Fans manufactured and 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." from the first part of the article
As an Asian, I was always told not to sleep with the window open as the wind might paralyze and kill you - of course, I pretty ignore that "advice" even at 14 weighing and rejecting that as nonsense.
But I think it might be from Polynesian or South Asia countries where people might tend to sleep outdoors (before air conditioning of course) and that some ill wind might paralyze or kill you ... perhaps related to hypothermia - that while you might fall asleep when it's warmer but then if the air temperature drops?
Isn't there some medical condition related to stiffening of joints or muscles from wind?
I think the fan thing is just an extension of that - I know some people defintely do not like a steady wind blowing towards their stomach. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jbelkin800 ( talk • contribs) 22:41, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
There have been confirmed deaths as a result of building mold in the United States. While this is the first time I recalling having heard of anything exactly like "fan death", it doesn't seem entirely illogical to suppose that if one were living in a dwelling that had mold conditions similar to those in build that have killed, the use of a fan in that enclosed area could perhaps make the exposure worse. A website that actually addresses the issue of "fan death" directly has many far-fetched suggestions like hypothermia (in an enclosed room?), spirits, and vacuum over the face due to moving air (!) O_o so I am going to guess that not a lot of serious scientific attention has yet been paid to this subject... but sleeping close to the ground, and a fan close to the ground preventing the settling of dust could also result in increased inhalation of particulate matter. The chemical irritants present in a building with toxic mold cause a variety of health issues.
"Valley fever" is particularly well known here in Arizona to be the result of breathing in the crud in the air on a dry, dusty, windy day. The Santa Ana wind in California also once had a similar reputation with the Spanish colonists. Considering the effects of certain windy weather patterns and the effects of certain types of indoor pollution are well known, its very easy to see how there may be a tiny nugget of truth at the bottom of the larger myth that needs to be studied. Zaphraud 01:12, 27 October 2007 (UTC)
I'm a South Korean, and my family also has used the function in summer nights. However, it's not because of the only "fan death" belief. My family uses the function because of not only "fan death" belief but also other various reasons:
I want to ask you not to think a "timer snob" of Korean fans as "just" a equipment to prevent "fan death". ― 韓斌/Yes0song ( 談笑 筆跡 다지모) 07:16, 19 February 2008 (UTC)
No offense, but sounds to me like "air-conditioningitis" is just another made up condition. -- 86.135.87.199 ( talk) 02:23, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/elecprii.html Electricity Prices for Industry (U.S. Dollars per Kilowatthour) United States 0.061 - Korea, South 0.065 -- Random832 ( contribs) 16:32, 29 July 2008 (UTC)
A google search for "냉방병" seems to turn up at least a few sites that identify the disease so named with Legionellosis, which according to the article, can be associated with air conditioning systems in some cases (not, however, in a way that makes sense to jump from there to fans). -- Random832 ( contribs) 20:43, 29 July 2008 (UTC)
This is where having to make sure that everything is sourced to the hilt is a major draw back. It's obvious to me why the South Korean government promotes the notion of "fan death". Its to save electricity. The entire Korean peninsula has huge energy needs and rather limited production capacity. While this seems obvious, its difficult to find a specific source to back it up. Can anyone find one?
supersoulty ( talk) 06:50, 29 June 2008 (UTC)
I'm curious if anyone has considered ozone possibly being produced by a low-quality fan's motor brushes in an enclosed environment... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.113.238.183 ( talk) 06:44, 11 November 2009 (UTC)
What I don't get is... why would you ever run a fan in a closed room? I don't know what the weather is like in Korea, but if I'm running a fan in a Minnesota summer, its because its 80-100F outside, and even hotter inside, with upwards of 98% humidity. All my doors and windows are wide open in a desperate attempt to circulate cooler air in from outside and force hot air out. A closed room is only going to get hotter and more humid due to your body heat, humid breath and profuse sweat, not to mention the heat the fan motor is making... The only reason I'd have a room in any way closed is if there is an air conditioner, and that's another matter entirely. "Air conditioner death" is at least vaguely conceivable, seeing as it is actively lowering the temperature of a room. A fan alone can only equalize temperatures, and in fact will always raise temperatures due to the motor. If anything, Hyperthermia is a more likely cause of death... 64.83.197.250 ( talk) 05:25, 24 May 2012 (UTC)
US Patent 6006524
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6006524/description.html
"When an electric fan or air conditioner is kept operating during the time of sleeping, the user may suffer from evaporation of moisture from the body and drop of the body temperature and thus may be taken with an airconditioningitis or cold. When an electric fan or air conditioner is operated for a long time, it may cause oxygen defiiency in a narrow and closed room, claiming the life of the person sleeping in the room."
Interesting that this nonsense made it into the patent system. 72.138.38.71 ( talk) 21:53, 23 July 2008 (UTC)
Is there any polling data indicating what portion of South Koreans actually believe this? -- YixilTesiphon Talk Contribs 17:07, 20 August 2008 (UTC)
The official warning states that 20 persons have died from "fan death" during two years in South Korea. That is just not significant - I think the tea cosy death rate is higher ... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tobixen ( talk • contribs) 20:51, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
Under beliefs bullet point 6 should loose be lose? ( 219.89.70.24 ( talk) 21:41, 11 January 2009 (UTC))
I just heard that the January 2009 issue of Esquire had a blurb about fan death. Can anyone confirm this? -- Zenpickle ( talk) 17:23, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
Yeah, it was from an oversea student learning about the fan death myth while staying with a foster family in South Korea or something like that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.13.101.85 ( talk) 23:09, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
Research suggests that fan use may be a contributing factor in heat-related deaths such as fatal cases of hyperthermia.
No way. This is deceptive, the linked article [12] barely even mentions fans and absolutely does not name it as a contributing factor (although it mentions many). Instead a CDC comment on the article states that "fans may not prevent hypothermia". A very different thing. In any case only four cases are described and only two of them mentioned fans. It would be silly to treat these as data points and sillier still to draw any conclusion from them. Not to mention that if you were you would be better off claiming a protective effect - that fans prevent heatstroke death. Since during a heat wave the number of people using fans is likely to be much greater than 50%. Ergo the population of "surviving fan users" would be much larger than that of "surviving non-fan users". Anyway it's nonsense to claim that this usefully talks about fans or fan death.
Texts on industrial hygiene and ventilation will describe conditions when the use of a fan will increase a worker's heat load. Those conditions include very high temperatures found in foundries and similar industries like heat treating metals. Similar problems occur with high heat and high humidity.
Cite needed here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.248.171.144 ( talk) 01:16, 3 July 2009 (UTC)
I have read the supposed sources and found no support for claims of hyperthermia caused by fans. I have deleted the false or misleading portions of the section. A fan can make one hotter if the ambient air is both hot enough (>99F / 37C) and the humidity is high enough that evaporative cooling is ineffective. Otherwise having a fan will cool a person by convection and evaporation. Unless the air temperature is quite low (<65F) and there is insufficient cover hypothermia is impossible. The sources cited in the deleted section show that sick (esp. hypertensive and congestive heat failure) and elderly people may be more heat sensitive than others, but do not show that fans are not helpful in cooling overheated bodies which are not dehydrated and are capable of producing sweat. There is absolutely no scientific doubt nor room for doubt that "fan death" is a complete myth. The myth likely arose from the real danger of carbon monoxide poisoning from charcoal heaters in early/mid 20th century Korea and was generalized by ignorant people to all sorts of climate control devices.
Enon (
talk)
04:54, 17 July 2009 (UTC)
Well, check out the EPA's Excessive Heat Events Guidebook, and especially "Appendix B: Use of Portable Electric Fans During Excessive Heat Events". I quote:
Let's not be too quick to dismiss the potential health risks here. -- Avenue ( talk) 11:06, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
I went ahead and promoted the hyperthermia content nearer the top of the page, as I believe it is credible. Which is correct, 90°F or 99°F? Certainly the latter makes sense, as it is above normal human body temperature. The former is uncomfortable, but will a fan actually make it life-threatening? I think it is important to state (briefly and concisely) the lifesaving biological fact ahead of the entertaining urban legend. I couldn't figure out how to link to the bookmark further down the page where this issue is already discussed. Yak99 ( talk) 20:18, 7 May 2011 (UTC)yak99
This article has some far fetched "theories" as to how a fan might kill someone. Totally false. This myth has absolutely no foundation in truth. I've slept with a fan on for 15 years now, and I've never died from it. I know many, many people who also do this, and none have died. There is none, 0, zip, zilch, nada fact involved, and that should be pointed out more clearly. The conditions in which a fan might actually lead to death are so extreme, and so unusual, that the person would die without the fan at all. ReignMan ( talk) 02:32, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
Yup, there is a similar situation in parts of China. It is literally like telling someone that gunshot wounds aren't a health concern; the conversation is not going to end untill:
a) you give up and promise to take caution with fans or b) they decide you suffer from some kind of retardation or mental problem 213.167.158.254 ( talk) 17:07, 22 March 2010 (UTC)
"Furthermore, atomic oxygen is highly reactive and would produce sharp-smelling ozone, if it was produced by some mechanism. It also ignores the nearly universal human tendency to wake up while being suffocated in a moment of sleep."
I don't think this article accurately reflects how ridiculous fan death is. This is the country that houses leading high tech corporations like Samsung and LG, and they widely believe that falling asleep with a fan on will kill you. Subbevil ( talk) 19:43, 11 May 2011 (UTC)
The section I removed and Vou replaced, discusses research on fans and deaths. It does not discuss Korean phenomenon of "fan death." This is a subtle but important distinction. This article about a belief that fans can kill someone if left on while they are asleep, the research I deleted is about the effectiveness of fans at cooling the body and has nothing to do with the belief that fans can kill. To use it in this article is original research. -- Daniel 15:26, 2 July 2011 (UTC)
There is NO scientific evidence that disproves the idea of "fan death." I think the stance that it is absolutely an urban legend is an opinion, not fact. Therefore, to avoid bias, the article should stop referring to it as an urban legend. Also the viewpoints of the EPA and Korean government should NOT be suppressed in favor of the dominant public opinion from non-Koreans that fan death is absolutely false. There is no evidence it's absolutely false and there is evidence that supports fan death has scientific basis. So it absolutely MUST at the very least be treated as an "opinion" rather than fact that it's false. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Stupaddaso ( talk • contribs) 07:30, 28 October 2011
There is nothing to disprove that Koreans (and ONLY Koreans) are being eaten by snotmonsters that steal the air out of a room whenever a fan is on either. Does not make it real. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.75.61.245 ( talk) 06:50, 25 February 2013 (UTC)
I see the "Beliefs" section has been tagged as containing original research for about 10 months now. I let the very few beliefs with inline references remain, but I have moved beliefs lacking verifiability here for now:
This section possibly contains
original research. (June 2011) |
Anyone who cares to reliably source these can certainly put them back into the article. Cheers. -- Ds13 ( talk) 16:50, 6 April 2012 (UTC)
So just to be clear: switching on a fan can in fact cause death by hyperthermia (not hypothermia), in cases where the room is unventilated and extremely hot and the person is, say, passed out drunk, is that correct? According to at least one Korean person, the Korean popular belief is that fans can cause death in summer and the room is unventilated. If that's correct, then this is not an urban legend, or a least not much of one.
Now certainly someone with a blog is not a Reliable Source. But I would say the burden of proof is on the claim that the Korean beliefs are unreasonable. This article relies largely on one (primary) source, this is what it says:
Well, of course that's a pretty silly thing to say, for one release from one government agency. What it presumably ought to say is something like this:
OK, so I have no idea what those 20 reported cases were all about. On the other hand, it's pretty clear the idea that fan death is an urban legend lacks WP:Verifiability. I'd guess that (hyperthermic) fan death does occasionally happen, and there is no more than a popular misconception on the causes and nature of the phenomenon rather than on the existence of the phenomenon. Again, the burden of verifiability is on the content of the article, the claim that fan death is an urban legend.
— Ashley Y 03:58, 2 July 2012 (UTC)
The article subject is "fan death". Therefore all information about potential health hazard is valid for inclusion. If you want to write about myth exclusively , please make a proper unambiguous article title, such as Korean belief in fan death. Staszek Lem ( talk) 19:25, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
Last sentence of the first paragraph. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.48.174.51 ( talk) 12:45, 23 August 2012 (UTC)
Hello, as a French reader, I found this article by chance. I am amazed, among plenty of hypotheses proposed here that the hypothesis of white noise has not been proposed ; It seems that a fan emits a sort of
white noise.
This noise could according to some authors* facilitate sleep. And white noise can have a calming effect on the baby.
This is only a hypothesis, but maybe in a few cases, the presence of a fan could "facilitate" one sudden infant death syndrome ?, or forward an adult?
Sources :
Vicente-Torres MA, Gil-Loyzaga P. Noise stimulation decreases the concentration of norepinephrine in the rat cochlea. Neurosci Lett 1999, 14; 266. -
* Southwick SM, Bremner JD, Rasmusson A, Morgan CA, Arnsten A, Charney DS. Role of norepinephrine in the pathophysiology and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder ; Biol Psychiatry 1999, 46: 1192-1204 (
abstract)). Of course, this is only a hypothesis, moreover non-exclusive, and should first verify that excess mortality is truly associated with the use of a fan during sleep --
Lamiot (
talk)
15:31, 2 December 2012 (UTC)
As far as I knew, fan death was only Korea. Someone added that it also included Japan. I have been unable to find anything in regards to Japan also believing this. Until a source is mentioned, i am reverting it back to "South Korea". Masterhatch 10 July 2005
I don't have a source, but I lived in Japan and was often told that I would die if I left the fan on overnight. This is obviously untrue because I've slept with a fan on every night for my entire life (mostly), and am still apparently alive. So maybe the media doesn't perpetuiate the myth as much in Japan as in Korea, but there exist Japanese people that think fans kill you. (And heaters in the winter, for that matter. I think the cost of energy is just too high and "you're going to die" is more polite than "I don't want to pay for this".) Jrockway 17:17, 18 December 2005 (UTC)
The "Fan death" article in Japanese Wikipedia, the belief in Japan is also introduced. ― 韓斌/Yes0song ( 談笑 筆跡 다지모) 06:50, 19 February 2008 (UTC)
I am Japanese, and I have heard from my family not to leave the fan on while sleeping. I had thought this was a Japanese belief, since I never hear it in America. Looking at the Japanese wiki page shows that it is considered an urban legend of Japan and Korea. So I think we need to remove the statements like "never been reported or ever heard of in any other country including North Korea." 97.134.209.233 ( talk) 20:35, 19 December 2011 (UTC)
The first line of this section states "The genesis of the misconception is unclear, but fears about electric fans date almost to their introduction to Korea, with stories dating to the 1920s and 1930s warning of the risks of nausea, asphyxiation, and facial paralysis from this "new technology".[1][2]
The second part if this same section states that "There is a conspiracy theory that the South Korean government created or perpetuated the myth as propaganda to curb the energy consumption of South Korean households during the 1970s energy crisis,[1] which coincided with the rule of President Park Chung-hee, who named modernization and a self-reliant economy as his top goals in his Five Year Economic Development Plan.[3] That reports of fan death first appeared in the 1970s supports this theory.[4]
I may be making a comprehension mistake, but it looks to me as if this is saying the stories of fan death first appeared in the 1920s and 1930s, followed directly by it stating that stories of fan death first appeared in the 1970s. So... which is it? 72.197.38.228 ( talk) 11:20, 5 December 2013 (UTC)
I'm removing two sentences on the vital importance of fans in zero gravity environments. It's interesting, but simply not related to fan death in this article's context; it's actually the opposite in a sense. There are also many other situations in which fans are necessary for safety or survival. Just posting here in case anyone wants to make a case for continued inclusion. The sentences in question are:
Fans are necessary in zero-gravity environments, where exhaled gases of different densities do not rise or fall away from the person breathing but instead mix more slowly via diffusion. Sleeping on the International Space Station without a fan or ducted airflow would eventually cause asphyxiation.
Agyle ( talk) 08:41, 8 December 2013 (UTC)
The very last line of this site says:
I have been in South Korea for over 3 and a half years and i can tell you that the belief in fan death is just as strong now as it was before the internet ruled the day. it is actually probably stronger because of the net as there are numerous korean sites that promote fan death and anything written about fan death by non-koreans is considered garbage. I have only ever met ONE korean who doesn't believe in fan death. she doesn't believe in it because she grew up in canada and moved to korea as an adult.
Anyways, my points is, that last line about koreans starting to realise fan death isn't true should be changed. Their belief is only growing.
The very last section contains excerpts of opinions from three medical doctors, two of which are licensed to practice in South Korea. The section is tagged for inappropriate tone, which I am not questioning or challenging. Two of the three excerpts have reference citations. That is good. The third one, from a South Korean physician, does not. I refer to this:
- 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.
Given much of the unscientific material in Wikipedia and some of the if-y portions of this article, I would prefer that Dr. Lee Yoon-song's sensible statement be retained rather than removed from the article. I have no idea how to find the source, but would encourage anyone else who can, do so.
It would be sad, and misleading for WP readers for the section to be removed. -- FeralOink ( talk) 00:45, 30 July 2013 (UTC)
If any budding Koreanologists want an obscure topic of inquiry, I recommend combing the literature for references to illness-causing winds in Korea and area folk beliefs and religions. In my readings and travels, I have come across the idea in different places that ancient Chinese, Austronesians, and Hmong associated bad winds with certain diseases. It would be really interesting to get some accounts of how exactly people think this works.
I also suspect that this fear of electric fans exists outside of Asia, as I was told in rural Panay Island in the Philippines that using electric fans was the cause of certain illnesses, that "the air gets inside you".
Dwarfkingdom ( talk) 05:29, 3 January 2015 (UTC)
Reference 5 which is supposed to lead to the Excessive heat events guidebook from the US EPA is a reliable source but when you click on the link it takes you to the EPA's page about heat islands. I could not find the pdf which would supposedly have Annex B in it that you reference. Only 5 out of your 14 sources are considered reliable sources, the other 9 are pulled from newspaper articles and blogs.
In the hypothermia section, second paragraph you make no references but start the paragraph with the phrase "simple physics" if this is so simple then there should be some journal article about it. I assume that you are referring to the simple physics of thermodynamics in which if people were to keep a heat pump (fan) with no outlet then the heat would build up in the room. You could have referenced: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1228&context=icec, which is from the University of Purdue's School of Engineering. Also in this section you state that "few people would keep a fan running in a room that is cold enough to induce hypothermia" I feel like that is your opinion and cannot be stated as a fact.
In the asphyxiation section you reference an article from a source called Straight Dope to disprove the theory of running out of oxygen in a closed room. I feel like this could be challenged with a simple model of the room, an averaged sized person and breathing rates which could be referenced by a medical journal. BrianaKayPhillips ( talk) 18:45, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
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I'd heard 'fan death' started as a euphemism for suicide, which is a taboo subject in ROK. Can anyone corroborate this? It seems like the article should mention this, if there's sources for it. Devgirl ( talk) 22:08, 16 May 2018 (UTC)
The result of the move request was: Not moved. A consensus to not move this page. ( non-admin closure) – Ammarpad ( talk) 15:42, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
Fan death → Fan death theory – The original Korean name for the subject of the page is "선풍기 사망설", literally meaning "Fan Death Theory". Changing the page name to "Fan death theory" would more accurately reflect what the subject is actually known in South Korea. Aceus0shrifter ( talk) 14:47, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
"CISS" is in a quotation, but there is no explanation of what it means. I searched for a little while on the internet and could not find any fitting explanation. Can some-one please explain it? Kdammers ( talk) 12:09, 29 May 2020 (UTC)
References