Every man, woman, and child growing up in Korea have heard the dire warning issued from government, new channels, and parents during the summer: NEVER EVER FALL ASLEEP WITH YOUR FAN TURNED ON!

The reason? It's simple -- because you will die.

Yes, yes.... I don't live in Korea anymore and have since spoken to non-Koreans about this. Most people I've shared this story with just dismissed it as mere urban myth. However, the association between sleeping with the fan turned on and death is so great, that the vast majority of Korean still believe in it with religious fervor. Every summer the news channel posts 2-3 deaths a year that is attributed to "fan death."

Try looking up "fan death" in Wikipedia and youtube -- you'll see what I mean.

But here's the catch. It seems like supposed victims of fan death has the following shared traits:

1) the fan was pointed directly to their face.
2) ALL the windows and doors in the room were shut completely.
3) the fan was going all night.

If you read the Wikipedia article, there is still much debate about this "fan death." Nobody knows exactly why this can cause death, but there are some theories such as lack of oxygen, etc. While some doctors in Korea dispute the validity of "fan death," other physicians actually support this.

I am very interested to know what everybody else thinks.

This gets posted often enough around here that it's starting to look like an intentional spam campaign with the intent of getting the myth put on the show.

I doubt that the mythbusters will ever do it. This would be a perfect myth for the Korean version of mythbusters. Americans for the most part aren't aware of the myth, though, and regularly sleep with fans on in their rooms. This type of myth therefore wouldn't play well to an American audience because they would already know that it is busted.

If this is part of a spam campaign, please stop posting it. The researchers who go through this board looking for ideas don't just go by post counts to decide what goes on the show. This is especially true when the subject is an intentional spam.

If you aren't a spammer, please use the FIND button so that you don't again accidentally post an over-posted myth.

I am actually very offended at your accusation that this is a spam thing -- no it is not.

I work as a research personnel at the University of Chicago Hospitals, and this has been a hot topic among doctors I work with ever since I shared this story. There are some who thinks they can see how fan death occurs (hypothermia for example). Others do not.

Also, with so many Americans going over to Asia to teach English these days, most of them come back with such urban myths -- it has actually become some sort of a parlor game to figure some of these out (there are a lot other ones from China and Japan as well).

I am upset at how rude you sounded. I JUST joined the forum and really wanted to see what others thought about it, so I can come up with a consensus of my own. Why do you have to suspect that EVERYBODY submitting such things have ulterior motives?

If this has been posted many, many times, then I am sorry to have irritated you. However, I do believe you owe me an apology for being so rude.

You should not be so offended kurenai. You say that you just joined the forum, so what is your excuse for not using the find button first. I seriously doubt that this is your first forum and practically everyone has the same basic rules. USE THE FIND BUTTON BEFORE POSTING NEW THREADS, especially if you are new to the forum.

"I seriously doubt that this is your first forum?" So you're a mind-reader now?

I can't believe how you guys can form an opinion without knowing anything about the person. (sigh)

First of all, my husband is a fan of this show and that's one of the biggest reasons why I joined. This "fan death" thing has been an enjoyable topic of conversation and last night he wondered if there's a way to test this. My only guess was the get a lab rat or something and build a box or something. Like I said, I wanted to see what other people thought.

And secondly, yes, I did use the "find" button. However, I keep getting error messages and thought, well, the hell with it, and submitted this. I don't know... I use Firefox, so that might be a part of it.

Again, I am really upset at how this is turning out. Not everybody is who you think they are. Besides, I never believed this will make it to the show anyway -- it's too hard to replicate and too much other factors to consider. But like I said, I wanted to see what other people thought about it.

I am still waiting for that apology

i sleep fan on every night do you mean ceiling fan

quote:

Originally posted by kurenai:
"I seriously doubt that this is your first forum?" So you're a mind-reader now?

I can't believe how you guys can form an opinion without knowing anything about the person. (sigh)

First of all, my husband is a fan of this show and that's one of the biggest reasons why I joined. This "fan death" thing has been an enjoyable topic of conversation and last night he wondered if there's a way to test this. My only guess was the get a lab rat or something and build a box or something. Like I said, I wanted to see what other people thought.

And secondly, yes, I did use the "find" button. However, I keep getting error messages and thought, well, the hell with it, and submitted this. I don't know... I use Firefox, so that might be a part of it.

Again, I am really upset at how this is turning out. Not everybody is who you think they are. Besides, I never believed this will make it to the show anyway -- it's too hard to replicate and too much other factors to consider. But like I said, I wanted to see what other people thought about it.

I am still waiting for that apology

This ridiculous "Myth" is posted at least twice a week and has been since I joined the boards a year and a half ago. There is absolutely No evidence that the problem exists other than Korean hysteria. Hundreds of millions of people sleep with fans on in their bedrooms every night an DON'T DIE! How on Earth do you propose that the MBs test something that never happens? If you really are a researcher, it troubles me that you give this any credibility because there is no credible evidence of this ever happening and you should be able to understand that. I sleep in a room every night that has at least 7 fans going during the A/C season and, just as an added test, I've been leaving my film scanner on for a total of 8. At least 1 of these fans bl0ws directly in my face, no matter what position I am sleeping in and I usually sleep out from under any covers since I like the feeling of a breeze on my skin. I have slept with at least 1 fan on in the room for about 50 years, so, from personal experience, this "Myth" is a total crock of BS.

Ah, yes, but what if the person was drunk? Or old? Or too young? In the case of a healthy individual, I have a huge doubts about a person dying from just a fan pointed to their face -- in a closed room with a wood-burning stove, now I can see that as being deadly.

And as for this myth being stupid, yes I agree with you that it is stupid. But think of how many myths that were tested in this show. THE VAST MAJORITY of them are based on hearsay, i.e. "something that never happens" as you so elegantly put it dfez.

Case in point, the pirate submarine for example, and the myth about a woman's boob job blowing up in a plane. Are these any more stupid than the fan death story? No more or less strange that some people can see it happening.

Apology denied:

http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums?a=search&reqW...rum_scope=7501919888

First of all, did you even read my posts? I said I got error messages, NOT '0 results' when I pressed "find" button.

Also, I do agree that the fan death story is strange and unbelievable -- but think about all the other episodes in the show. THE VAST MAJORITY of them were based on hearsay that did not happen. So how is this any different from all the other myths?

And I wasn't speaking to you, "Subductionzone" -- I wanted an apology from "engineer_comp_geek" for assuming someone to be something when he doesn't know anything about me.

It worked for me. There is even a short tutorial on how to use it. Here is what I did, left clicked the find button once. Typed in "Fan death" . Left clicked "go".

There are a total of 435 posts about Fan Death on these boards. It's not a very original idea.

How on earth am I supposed to know if it;s original or not when the fund button gave me error messages. And yes, when I tried it just now it worked fine. What, you going to blame me for that too? And maybe if there is more than 400 comments on it, maybe people should look into it.

One poster revealed that 'fan death' is usually what they call suicide, so the family of the deceased will not lose face, an important thing in Asian cultures. Before we moved to Washington, I slept with A/C, a celing fan, an oscillating fan, the cooling fan in my PC, an oxygen concentrator and a CPAP machine all going. I have COPD, and if anyone would suffer fan death, it is someone whose breathing is already compromised. Fan death is hooey, plain and simple.

quote:

Originally posted by kurenai:
How on earth am I supposed to know if it;s original or not when the fund button gave me error messages. And yes, when I tried it just now it worked fine. What, you going to blame me for that too? And maybe if there is more than 400 comments on it, maybe people should look into it.

Do you seriously expect anyone to do a TV program to determine whether untold generations of inbreeding on the Korean Peninsula resulted in a bizarrely maladaptive genetic defect that would cause the carrier to die from a slight breeze on their face and this defect finally manifested itself only after the invention of the Electric Fan? Perhaps we should put this effect to good use; it would allow the US to quit spending Billions of Dollars defending South Korea from the Godless Commies to the North. We could simply install a string of deadly fans along the DMZ and allow our guys to come home and live their lives with their families. The concept is totally absurd scientifically and, so far, none of the 430 posters have come up with a single forensically documented case of this ever happening.

Kurenai if you continue to get any more error messages while using Find, go to the bottom of the page and click on contact to report the problem

perhaps fan motors in korea are sparky and emit toxic levels of ozone that accumulates throughout the night ,or maybe they are karosene fans.windows and doors shut and all.

quote:

Originally posted by kurenai:
I am still waiting for that apology

Let's calm down a bit here.

You came in as a new user and posted an over-posted myth. One of the typical traits of spam campaigns is that they are over-posted myths that are always posted by new users (who are actually just one user or a small group of people who keep posting under new aliases). While your subsequent posts make me believe that you aren't a spammer, your first post looked very much like a spam. If you post something that looks like a spam, you really shouldn't be too surprised if you get called a spammer.

The FIND button doesn't always work properly, so I do have some sympathy for you, and now that I've seen your explanation I'm not going to give you grief for accidentally posting an over-posted myth.

You seem to have gotten off to a bad start on the board. Let's all just take a step back and calm down, and start over. You are aware of the FIND button and at least tried to use it, so you are ahead of most newbies on the board. Welcome to the board, and I hope you can get past this misunderstanding and enjoy your time here. There are plenty of nice people here and plenty of interesting discussions.

I consider myself to be an up-front and honest person. I don't play games. If I think someone has said or done something good, I say so. If I think someone wiffed something, I say so. If I think something is a spam, I say so. If I wiff something, I expect someone else to tell me where I goofed. If I come off a bit rude sometimes, I apologize.

Late breaking news: A new major scientific study done by actual Scientists has shown that having a fan blowing on an infant in his room results in a 72% decrease in the incidence of SIDS by keeping the air circulating.