Fan Death: An Urban Legend

If you have ever fallen asleep in a closed room with an electric fan running, you're lucky to be alive.

That's what many folks in South Korea believe, at any rate, including some government health authorities. The Korean Consumer Safety Board's 2005 Summer Safety Guide listed "asphyxiation from electric fans and air conditioners" as one of the top five summer hazards, with 20 cases reported between 2003 and 2005. 

"Doors should be left open when sleeping with the electric fan or air conditioner turned on," the bulletin recommends. "If bodies are exposed to electric fans or air conditioners for too long, it causes bodies to lose water and hypothermia. If directly in contact with a fan, this could lead to death from increase of carbon dioxide saturation concentration and decrease of oxygen concentration."

For this reason, most electric fans sold in South Korea are equipped with an automatic shut-off timer, and some even carry a warning: "This product may cause suffocation or hypothermia."

No scientific basis
I know what you're thinking: there couldn't possibly be any scientific basis for this. And you're right. It's a real Korean urban legend, reinforced by many years of media coverage of alleged fan-related fatalities. Even many doctors believe in "fan death," apparently, though some, citing a lack of published research, refuse to believe it.

"There is little scientific evidence to support that a fan alone can kill you if you are using it in a sealed room," Dr. John Linton of Severance Hospital in Seoul told JoongAng Daily in 2004.

"Although it is a common belief among Koreans, there are other explainable reasons for why these deaths are happening." Like other skeptical health professionals, Linton suspects most of the deaths are attributable to pre-existing health conditions that go unreported in media coverage.

"People believe in fan death because -- one -- they see a dead body and -- two -- a fan running," Seoul National University Hospital professor Yoo Tai-woo said in a 2007 interview with Reuters. "But normal, healthy people do not die because they slept with a fan running."

From GoneSeoulSearching.com

Fan death 'hard to imagine,' hypothermia expert says
JoongAng Daily also contacted a Canadian expert on hypothermia, Gord Giesbrecht, who said he'd never heard of such a thing as fan death. "It's hard to imagine, because to die of hypothermia, [one's body temperature] would have to get down to 28, drop by 10 degrees overnight," he said. "We've got people lying in snowbanks overnight here in Winnipeg and they survive."

Some fan death believers say hypothermia isn't the real culprit anyway. One theory holds that the fan creates a "vacuum" around the face, suffocating the victim. Another holds that running a fan or air conditioner in a closed room causes a build-up of carbon dioxide, also suffocating the victim. Both of these explanations seem to be pseudoscience.


The only 'cure' for fan death is science
Though recent news coverage reveals a slight increase in public skepticism about fan death, the belief still seems to be widely believed in Korean culture. Severance Hospital's John Linton has called for a medical task force to conduct autopsies in fatalities attributed to electric fans to determine the true causes of death. This seems like the best approach -- indeed, the only approach to take -- if the belief in "fan death" is to be eradicated in South Korea once and for all.

Other articles:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fan-death/
http://www.goneseoulsearching.com/2010/10/koreans-believe-in-fan-death.html
https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-11-04/why-every-korean-kid-knows-not-keep-fan-over-night  

A list of urban legends:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_urban_legends

Words
Asphyxiation - death from lack of air
Eradicated - eliminated, destroyed
Hazard - danger
Hypothermia - when your body gets very cold for a long time
Once and for all - forever
Pseudoscience - something that sounds like science, but is not based on fact
Skepticism - doubt that something is true
Suffocation - when you cannot breathe
Urban legend - a strange, often incredible story that many people believe. 

South Korea Starts Internet Channel To Inform Young People About the North

From English Online:

In 2011, South Korea started a new Internet television channel (Unification Channel) aimed at informing its young generation about North Korea and what they will be expecting if and when the two countries unite. The new TV channel shows news reports and press conferences as well as light entertainment.

The "unification channel" shows news bulletins, press conferences and some light entertainment

However, many South Koreans, especially those born after the Korean War, are not interested in North Korea. They have other things on their minds, like getting a good education and a good job. It is doubtful whether South Koreans’ attitude towards the North will be changed by the new internet channel.

The new website is supported by the government. It wants young people to get to know more about North Korea, which is considered a country far away by many Southerners. One highlight is a sitcom about a South Korean family who lives near the North Korean border. One day they adopt a young North Korean who escapes from his home country.

The Unification Channel shows comedies as well as news

A government spokesman claims that the political situation in the North can change at any time and South Koreans need to understand what this will mean for them. The South Korean government believes that reunification will not come because the governments of the two countries will reach an agreement but because the political system of the North will eventually collapse.

Economical experts claim that the cost of reunification will be high and estimate that South Korea will have to pay over $100 billion to integrate the two economies. The government’s new Internet channel explains how this money may be used.

Some young people in South Korea, on the other hand, have already started to deal with the situation. They think that a collapse of the regime in the North will have enormous implications on life in South Korea. A stream of refugees will undoubtedly move southwards to a country that has become one of Asia’s major economies in the last few decades.

Older South Koreans have a different view on the issue. They think that the two Korean states belong together and should never have been separated. North Korea, on the other side, has reacted angrily after the government announced the launch of its new internet channel. It claims that South Korea wants to destabilize the North with psychological warfare.

 Words

• adopt = to take a young person into your family
• agreement = promise to do something, made by two people, groups or countries
• aim = for special people
• announce = to say officially
• attitude = position, feelings
• border = line between two countries
• channel = a station that broadcasts programs
• claim = to say that something is true
• collapse = break down
• considered = thought to be
• deal with = think about
• decade = a period of ten years
• destabilize = to make a government less powerful
• doubtful = not sure
• economy = the system of money and production of goods in a country
• enormous = very big
• escape = get away from
• especially = above all
• estimate = guess
• eventually = slowly
• explain = show
• government = people who rule a country
• highlight = here: important program
• however = but
• implication = future effect
• integrate = bring together
• issue = topic
• launch = start
• light entertainment = films, shows , performances that are easy to understand
• major = very big
• psychological warfare = actions that make your enemies feel afraid
• react = answer
• refugee = person who has to leave their country because of conflicts, wars or disasters
• regime = government that is not elected by the people
• reunification = when two countries come together again
• separate = divide
• sitcom = funny television program with the same characters appearing in different situations every week
• spokesman = a person who presents the opinion of a government or company
• state = country
• stream = long line of
• support = help, finance
• undoubtedly = certainly
• unite = to become one country
• whether = if