Fan death

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Many people in South Korea believe that it is dangerous to use a fan in an enclosed space.

The fan death is a widespread superstition in South Korea or a modern legend . It says that if you run a fan in a closed room overnight , you can die (from suffocation , poisoning or hypothermia ) if you are in this room. In part, this superstition is extended to air conditioning . Some fans that are manufactured and sold in Korea are equipped with a timer that switches them off after a certain time. Users are advised to use this switch when they go to sleep while the fan is running.

Alleged reasons

Some fans in South Korea are sold with a timer. Such a fan switches off automatically after the set time has elapsed, which supposedly can save lives, especially when going to bed.

Proponents of the belief in the fan death myth offer different explanations of how a fan kills. However, these explanations are illogical and scientifically untenable. Typical explanations are given below:

  • A fan creates a vortex that sucks in the air in the closed space and thus creates a partial vacuum under the fan . In fact, the air pressure varies less at any point in space than it does during a storm .
  • A fan consumes the oxygen in a room and thereby causes a fatal amount of CO 2 . In fact, no change in the room air is caused by the fan, apart from possible chemical outgassing of the fan material or possible ozone generation .
  • If the fan is placed directly in front of the sleeping person's face, it will suck out all of the air and thus prevent breathing.
  • Fans caused hypothermia or an exceptionally low body temperature. When the metabolism comes to rest at night, it becomes more sensitive to room temperature. This makes him more prone to hypothermia. In fact, empirical measurements show that a fan cannot significantly influence the room temperature and that the perceived cooling effect is almost exclusively caused by the air flow that surrounds the body, as this allows the body heat to pass more easily into the air and the evaporation coolness of the sweat is better used . In addition, hypothermia only occurs when the internal temperature of the body drops below normal. However, this does not happen by simply cooling the skin.
  • Fans caused hyperthermia ( heat stroke ).
  • Fans led to prolonged respiratory arrest due to oxygen shift or CO 2 enrichment in the ambient air.

Scientific attempts at explanations

  • The nocebo effect (negative placebo effect) could explain the fan deaths that were regularly reported in the summer.
  • Since fan deaths are mainly reported in summer, it can be assumed that the deaths are due to heat damage.

Government position of South Korea

The Korea Consumer Protection Board (KCPB) , a government agency of South Korea, issued a 2006 consumer warning that "respiratory failure caused by electric fans and air conditioners" was among South Korea's five most common summer accidents and injuries, according to data collected. These five hazards also included air conditioning explosions and hygiene problems that led to food poisoning, as well as opportunistic pathogens that nested in air conditioning systems.

The KCPB wrote:

“If people are exposed to electric fans or air conditioners for too long, it causes water loss and hypothermia. In direct contact with the air flow from a fan, this can lead to death from the increase in carbon dioxide and the reduction in oxygen. The risks are higher for elderly and sick people with respiratory problems. In the period from 2003 to 2005, 20 cases became known in which shortness of breath, caused by electric fans and air conditioning systems running while sleeping, played a role. To prevent shortness of breath, time switches should be used, the wind direction should be varied and doors should be left open. "

The state-owned Korea Consumer Agency (KCA) holds this consumer warning under the title "Beware of Summer Hazards!" with the publication date of August 8, 2007 still on their website before:

" Doors should be left open when sleeping with the electric fan or air conditioner turned on
If bodies are exposed to electric fans or air conditioners for too long, it causes bodies to lose water and hypothermia. If directly in contact with a fan, this could lead to death from increase of carbon dioxide saturation concentration and decrease of oxygen concentration. The risks are higher for the elderly and patients with respiratory problems.
From 2003 ~ 2005, a total of 20 cases were reported through the CISS involving asphyxiations caused by leaving electric fans and air conditioners on while sleeping. To prevent asphyxiation, timers should be set, wind direction should be rotated and doors should be left open. "

Occurrence in the media

The explanations of how fan death occurs are accepted by many Korean medical professionals. Fan deaths are regularly reported in the South Korean news this summer.

After it was made clear to residents of South Korea that the phenomenon was virtually unknown outside of South Korea, a column in the newspaper "Chicago Reader" replied that "Koreans are particularly vulnerable because of their physiology or because of the Korean fans".

Real risks of fan operation

Although a causal connection is consistently asserted in the public discussion about fans in South Korea, only the same residual risks apply to the operation of an electric fan as to the operation of any electrical device. Short circuits, cable fires and burning plastic housings can kill a person while they are sleeping. Small devices with insufficient air circulation for the room size are often operated at the highest power level when it is very hot and / or in stuffy rooms, which can lead to overheating.

credentials

  1. ↑ a b Surridge, Grant. (September 22, 2004). "Newspapers fan belief in urban myth." ( Memento from January 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) JoongAng Daily , via joongangdaily.joins.com and archive.org. Found on August 30, 2007.
  2. ↑ a b c Cecil Adams: "Will sleeping in a closed room with an electric fan cause death?" . In: The Straight Dope . Chicago Reader, Inc .. September 12, 1997. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
  3. ↑ Watanabe, Toshifumi, Masahiko Morita (August 31, 1998): Asphyxia due to oxygen deficiency by gaseous substances. In: Forensic Science International , Volume 96, Issue 1, pp. 47-59. Retrieved September 6, 2007.
  4. ↑ Gill, James R., Susan F. Ely, Zhongxue Hua (2002): Environmental Gas Displacement: Three Accidental Deaths in the Workplace. In: The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology , 23 (1): 26-30, 2002. Retrieved September 6, 2007.
  5. ↑ Beware of Summer Hazards! . Korea Consumer Protection Board (KCPB). July 18, 2006. Archived from the original on January 8, 2009. Retrieved September 1, 2007.
  6. ^ Office of Public Relations: Beware of Summer Hazards! Korea Consumer Agency, August 8, 2007, accessed May 7, 2018 .

Web links