Fan death

Fan death is an urban legend confined primarily to South Korea. The myth states that an electric fan, if left running overnight in a closed room, can result in the death (by suffocation, poisoning, or hypothermia) of those inside. It is believed that the fan creates a vortex, which sucks the oxygen from the room and creates a partial vacuum inside. Some that the reason is related to cold: as the metabolism slows down at night, one becomes more sensitive to temperature, and more prone to hypothermia.

The myth is remarkably resilient, and is accepted even 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, alcohol poisoning) are evident.

A typical example is this excerpt from the July 28, 1997, edition of the Korea Herald, an English-language newspaper:

The heat wave which has encompassed Korea for about a week, has generated various heat-related accidents and deaths. At least 10 people died from the effects of electric fans which can remove oxygen from the air and lower body temperatures. . . .

On Friday in eastern Seoul, a 16-year-old girl died from suffocation after she fell asleep in her room with an electric fan in motion. The death toll from fan-related incidents reached 10 during the past week. Medical experts say that this type of death occurs when one is exposed to electric fan breezes for long hours in a sealed area. "Excessive exposure to such a condition lowers one's temperature and hampers blood circulation. And it eventually leads to the paralysis of heart and lungs," says a medical expert.

"To prevent such an accident, one should keep the windows open and not expose oneself directly to fan air," he advised.

When informed that the phenomenon is virtually unknown outside of their country, some Koreans have gone as far as suggesting that their unique physiology renders them susceptible to fan death.

Recently, with the advent of the Internet, many South Koreans have become skeptical of fan death. Although some news sources have begun to recognize it as an urban legend, it remains a very widely-held belief.

External links

• The Straight Dope article on fan death
• South Korean blog entry on the phenomenon