Yes people, the electric fan...it will cause DEATH. Fan Death is a strange phenomenon, generally accepted only in South Korea, in which an electric fan left running overnight in a closed room can cause the death of those inside. Fans sold in Korea are equipped with a timer switch that turns them off after a set number of minutes, which users are frequently urged to set when going to sleep with a fan on.
This article, dated 28 July 1997, is from The Korean Herald, an English 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.
So if you've ever slept with your fan on and survived, consider yourself lucky! This is not an issue to be taken lightly. I'd like to call it a myth, but there are just hundreds of articles on this bizarre phenomenon. I guess it's something you have to see to believe.
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