Korean Fan Death

Posted: 4 years ago

Korean people belive that household fans can kill you in an enclosed room if left on overnight. I shit you not. They belive that the fan uses up all the oxygen in the room and that you suffocate to death. There is even a wikipedia article on the subject.

Here are a few of the best reasons listed in the wikipedia article as to why Korean people believe that fans can kill:

'Fan said:* That an electric fan creates a vortex, which sucks the oxygen from the enclosed and sealed room and creates a partial vacuum inside. This explanation violates conservation of matter, as indoor fans are not powerful enough to change the air pressure by any significant amount.

* That an electric fan chops up all the oxygen particles in the air leaving none to breathe. This explanation violates mass conservation and well-known properties of molecules and gases.

* The fan uses up the oxygen in the room and creates fatal levels of carbon dioxide. There is no actual conversion of oxygen to carbon dioxide happening; unlike a candle, the electric motor in a fan does not alter the chemical composition of the air (apart from creating some ozone if the motor uses brushes, and outgassing from the materials).

* That 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. This explanation ignores the fact that most people point a fan towards themselves when using one, which causes air to move past the face but does not change the amount of air present.


A Korean news item warning people about fans (no subtitles):


Something like a Korean PSA 'educating' people about the risks of fans: