People believe really silly things, all over the world. Stupidity and mass hysteria are colorblind, and I believe that one day we will live in a world where we all can just laugh at each other and realize the potential for silliness across all races, creeds, religions, and levels of cheese consumption.
That being said, in South Korea, it's a commonly accepted belief that leaving a fan on all night can lead to death by suffocation, hypothermia, hyperthermia, or poisoning. For this reason, all fans sold in South Korea come equipped with a timer that shuts the blades off after a certain period of time, to prevent people from dying from motherfucking fan air.
I am not joking.
Prior to the summer of 2006, the Korean Consumer Protection Board issued a statement about summer safety. In it, they asserted that asphyxiation by fan was among the top 5 causes of summer accidents that can relate in death. According to the KCPB:
"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.
This is amazing. I can't believe that before today, I was unaware that an entire country of otherwise reasonable people seriously believes in fan death. Tell your friends.
More on fan death:
KCPB Bulletin
A newspaper article from 2008
From "The Straight Dope"
And....
The Wikipedia article that kicked off my glorious day of researching fan death when I should have been working.
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Holy shit, if this were true I would be dead years ago. I need that delicious white noise, unless it's middle of the winter freezing.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's just those darn South Korean ones.
a couple years ago i ended up bed-ridden in a korean hospital for three months and i remember my nurse getting VERY angry when I insisted on leaving the fan on all night. for the life of me, i could not figure out what was going on (language barrier and all). i had a a very big "ooooh" moment after i got out of the hospital and had access to the internet again. pure craziness.
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