::A Geek in Korea::

In my morning adult class yesterday, we were talking about ways to save energy. I mentioned shopping for clothing following the advice of the "Cool Biz" campaign. I had heard a rumor about Fan Death that I wanted to share with my class.

Fan death, if you recall, is the belief that sleeping in a sealed room with a fan on will cause the person to die. According to the Wiki:

There are several reasons given as to how a fan can kill:

• It is believed that an electric fan creates a vortex, which sucks the oxygen from the enclosed and sealed room and creates a partial vacuum inside.
• The fan uses up the oxygen in the room and creates fatal levels of carbon dioxide.
• If the fan is put directly in front of the face of the sleeping person, it will suck all the air away, preventing one from breathing.
• 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.
• Often, it is claimed that a combination of these factors is responsible. 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.

I had heard a rumor that during the 1970’s during Park Chung Hee’s presidency that the government spread the idea of fan death as a way to convince Korean people to turn off fans in the summer heat, thus lowering energy consumption and preventing black outs. I heard this from a fellow teacher at my school but had never spoken to a Korean about it.

When I told them that perhaps the government was behind the idea of "Fan Death", they looked at me as if I was insane. Not because I was suggesting the government had lied for its own purposes, but that I disbelieved that sleeping with a fan on was dangerous. I had just woken up with a fan pointed at my bed, yet these women claimed that I was lucky to be alive. I told them that there is absolutely no danger of sleeping in a room with a fan.

They then started asking skeptical questions.
"Was the door closed?" one woman asked. I told her it was closed and locked, with no fresh air coming in.I also mentioned that the fan was no more than a meter or so away from the bed.

Another woman said that what I was doing was clearly dangerous. "The wind going over your face will create a vacuum and suck the oxygen out of your  mouth and nose. The oxygen in the room will disappear!"

"What about Air Conditioners? Don’t you think those are dangerous?"

I was laughing at the absurdity of it all. They could not believe that I had placed a fan near my bed and endangered myself and my wife so carelessly. I challenged them. I told them to pick their least favorite family member, put them in a room, and turn on the fan and tell them to take a nap. If they don’t look like they will survive, wake them up before they die. Everyone laughed, as if they thought that was akin to suicide. The Fan Death myth refuses to die with women that grew up in the 1970’s. Despite all the evidence, and the proof that I’m still alive, they simply won’t listen to me about it.

When I ask my younger students about turning on the fan in the room, they laughed when I asked about the door being closed. They clearly don’t believe it. Regardless, I’m going to continue to live on the edge and have a fan going in my room this summer. I’m dangerous like that.