Fan Death

This is a picture of our Korean fan. It may look like an innocent fan to you but it can kill. I have talked about fan death with quite a few Koreans and there are several ways a fan can kill:

1. A fan can cause death by hypothermia. The fan can lower your body core temperature which can lead to hypothermia and death.

2. A fan can cause death by suffocation. The fan can reduce enough of the air around you that you suffocate.

This is not a joke but a real concern. In Korea, you cannot run a fan all night long while you are asleep. This is when fan death strikes. One Korean told me of his concern for his girlfriend so he calls her before bedtime to make sure she isn't running her fan. Another told me that when someone dies at home in bed and there is a fan in the room, it is assumed that the cause of death was fan death. I was told the amount of deaths per year is 3-4 people.

I tried, in one case, to plead a point that it didn't really make sense, but I quickly learned that this is truly indisputable. Honestly, my first reaction was, "You've GOT to be kidding me!" But now with time to reflect on all I have heard, is it really any different than:

1. Don't walk under a ladder, it will bring you bad luck.

2. Break a mirror, seven years of bad luck.

3. Step on a crack, break your mother's back.

Plus a whole lot more.

In closing, we don't run the fan at night but we do run our air conditioning unit all night long and have for two months. I forgot to ask if air conditioning can cause death.