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huck
Joined: 19 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2004 4:04 pm Post subject: |
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For Yangban-
Your views on air conditioning sickness are fascinating. I followed what you said and I feel much healthier. I too believe that the air outside in the streets of Seoul is much better for you than A/C.
I was wondering what you think about fan death. I was going to turn on my fan the other night when I was going to bed, but then I remembered how some people die from doing that, and I was hoping that you could tell me what not to do so that I won't die. I look forward to hearing from you.
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little mixed girl
Joined: 11 Jun 2003
Location: shin hyesung's bed~
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| Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2004 7:13 pm Post subject: |
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the air conditioner in my dorm room seems to be molding our ceiling...literally!
there's like black mold dots all over the ceiling and in front of some rooms you can see it outside in the hallway.
maybe u should check for some mold and see if THAT might be the cause of your pain?  |
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shortskirt_longjacket
Joined: 06 Jun 2004
Location: fitz and ernie are my raison d'etre
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| Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 8:40 am Post subject: |
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mold is the devil. i got sick off of moldy walls in my apt. back in the states (shoddy, cheap construction...the mold was underneath the paint, for god sakes!). it's not a pretty sight.
here's a thing about AC and a little rant about my maniacal supervisor all wrapped into one (!):
my supervisor's mother bought her an air conditioning unit a while back. she still comes into work every day, bitch ing because it's so hot and she can't sleep. we're all like, "don't you have an air conditioner?" and she's like, "yeah, but i'm afraid of the electrical connections. i only run it for 20 minutes at a time. what if it catches fire while i sleep?" i was so tempted to say, "yeah, not to mention the horrible risk of acute air-con syndrome. people are dying of it, you know!" |
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giantyogurt
Joined: 09 Feb 2003
Location: Calgary, AB
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| Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 3:11 pm Post subject: Cause of fan death |
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| huck wrote: |
I was wondering what you think about fan death. I was going to turn on my fan the other night when I was going to bed, but then I remembered how some people die from doing that, and I was hoping that you could tell me what not to do so that I won't die. I look forward to hearing from you.
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Despite all the personal anecdotes you hear from others, the real cause of fan death is said to be hypothermia, especially in a small room with good insulation. When the fan is fixed and directed to you, it moves the air around your body (especially the skin) quite quickly. Since your bodily metabolism including the amount of blood flow is slow during sleep, mild hypothermia can occur. The critical temperature for death can vary greatly depending on the person's age, health conditions and so on. Old and tired people seem to be the largest target. Even 1 or 2 degree decrease in temperature can affect your health. |
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the_beaver
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 6:09 pm Post subject: Re: Cause of fan death |
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| giantyogurt wrote: |
| Despite all the personal anecdotes you hear from others, the real cause of fan death is said to be hypothermia, especially in a small room with good insulation. When the fan is fixed and directed to you, it moves the air around your body (especially the skin) quite quickly. Since your bodily metabolism including the amount of blood flow is slow during sleep, mild hypothermia can occur. The critical temperature for death can vary greatly depending on the person's age, health conditions and so on. Old and tired people seem to be the largest target. Even 1 or 2 degree decrease in temperature can affect your health. |
My ass. When I get cold at night I wake up chattering. |
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flutieflakes
Joined: 16 Mar 2003
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| Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 6:34 pm Post subject: |
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| perhaps you have been here too long or just got here giantyogurt as it seems you have bought into the fan death myth............it is the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard of..........."it sucks the oxygen out of the room".....this coming from educated people............i've been sleeping with the fan on in small rooms, you name it, for my whole life.............koreans tell me "you are just stronger than us"........my reply, "i thought you were superior to all other races?".........to looks of dumbfoundness............ridiculous really |
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giantyogurt
Joined: 09 Feb 2003
Location: Calgary, AB
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| Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 8:48 pm Post subject: Re: Cause of fan death |
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| the_beaver wrote: |
My ass. When I get cold at night I wake up chattering. |
Exactly. I know an autopsist through my friend who works at a hospital and actually asked him why some people die from using fans and I remember precisely what he told me. Normally when you feel cold, your brain stem tells you to wake up and do something about it, ie. turning your body away from the cold wind or covering yourself with blanket. When the body temperature falls below 35, your body will automatically shake the muscles to generate enough heat to get back to normal which is about 36.5 degree celcius for most adults. If it drops below 32, you lose consciousness and become unable to process external sensory information, in this case, the body temperature. If it continues to drop below 28, then your pulse will become noticeably weak and your breath will become very shallow, and you will eventually go in to a coma.
This type of hypothermia does not occur to healthy individuals. It usually occurs to the old, physically ill, or people who had an alcohol the night before which helps losing body temperature very quickly. (heat of vaporization) If you look for the news articles about the people who died from fan death, chances are they belong to the categories mentioned above. So if you're young and healthy and do not drink, you probably won't have to worry about this at all. |
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nev
Joined: 04 Jan 2004
Location: ch7t
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| Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 9:18 pm Post subject: |
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I studied fan death on a selection of rats/mice in my apartment. Don't worry, I was away on holiday for a week so was not subject to the very real danger. Sure enough, all the eldery and infirm rats/mice, when I returned, were dead and icy cold. The overall body temperature of the younger rats/mice was lower, but they were otherwise still healthy.
This proves that fan death is not a Korean myth, and is based in hardcore fact.
Sleep carefully. |
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the_beaver
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 9:34 pm Post subject: Re: Cause of fan death |
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| giantyogurt wrote: |
| the_beaver wrote: |
My ass. When I get cold at night I wake up chattering. |
Exactly. I know an autopsist through my friend who works at a hospital and actually asked him why some people die from using fans and I remember precisely what he told me. Normally when you feel cold, your brain stem tells you to wake up and do something about it, ie. turning your body away from the cold wind or covering yourself with blanket. When the body temperature falls below 35, your body will automatically shake the muscles to generate enough heat to get back to normal which is about 36.5 degree celcius for most adults. If it drops below 32, you lose consciousness and become unable to process external sensory information, in this case, the body temperature. If it continues to drop below 28, then your pulse will become noticeably weak and your breath will become very shallow, and you will eventually go in to a coma.
This type of hypothermia does not occur to healthy individuals. It usually occurs to the old, physically ill, or people who had an alcohol the night before which helps losing body temperature very quickly. (heat of vaporization) If you look for the news articles about the people who died from fan death, chances are they belong to the categories mentioned above. So if you're young and healthy and do not drink, you probably won't have to worry about this at all. |
Double my ass. The posterior hypothalamus will have you chattering the teeth out of your head in the adynamic stage of hypothermia. In fact, the posterior hypothalamus, in reaction to this increased evaporation of sweat on the skin, will get the body to produce less sweat and will increase the body's metabolism to counteract the fan. Cold air (let's say around 10 degrees celsius) moving at 100 kph would give a wind chill of 4 degrees celsius, but anything over 10 degrees, even if it was going at 200 kph, wouldn't do much more than evaporate the sweat your body produces more quickly.
Old and sick people who die in front of fan would've died sitting on the back porch trying to smack their toothless gums at today's wayward youths. |
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Kain067
Joined: 21 May 2004
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| Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 11:13 pm Post subject: |
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exactly. not many koreans have air conditioning. people are afraid/leery of the unknown. only the "rich" in korea have airconditioning. people think negatively about the things they are jealous of. put the two together and you have both "air conditioning sickness" and "fan death".
hard fact: no one has explained or can possibly explain why neither of these two medical problems even exist in southern Lousiana. |
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slap it
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 9:01 pm Post subject: |
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kain...."air conditioner disease" or �ù溴 is the literate translation from korean to english. "air conditioner disease" is really a flu you get during the hot summer months by stepping into a cold room from being outside. korean summers can get pretty hot and humid as you can see, so you tend to sweat alot. when you get indoors where the a/c is pumping from being outside, you become very vulnerable in getting a cold. the koreans call this �ù溴 or "air conditioner disease."
its not just us who get it. during the summer a lot of koreans get this flu as well. that's why if you talk to your korean friends, they'll tell you be careful for air conditioner sickness. |
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matthewwoodford
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Location: Location, location, location.
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| Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2004 2:54 am Post subject: |
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�ù溴 literally means 'cold room disease', but �ù� is also the word for 'air conditioning'. Another example of the pitfalls of translation...
As the last poster said, going suddenly from heat to cold can bring on a cold - which seems to make more sense than 'air conditioning sickness' somehow. Why this should be I don't know exactly. |
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the_beaver
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2004 4:50 am Post subject: |
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| matthewwoodford wrote: |
| As the last poster said, going suddenly from heat to cold can bring on a cold - which seems to make more sense than 'air conditioning sickness' somehow. Why this should be I don't know exactly. |
The great western version of fan death.
Nope. A cold is caused be a virus. |
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matthewwoodford
Joined: 01 Oct 2003
Location: Location, location, location.
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| Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2004 7:54 pm Post subject: |
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| the_beaver wrote: |
| matthewwoodford wrote: |
| As the last poster said, going suddenly from heat to cold can bring on a cold - which seems to make more sense than 'air conditioning sickness' somehow. Why this should be I don't know exactly. |
The great western version of fan death.
Nope. A cold is caused be a virus. |
Quite right. But, if a westerner says going from straight from a hot and damp environment to an environment with a chill breeze can bring on a cold, you're less likely to go 'What a backward country! This just goes to show westerners are incapable of simpe logic', aren't you?
For that matter, why do westerners say 'Wrap up warm or you'll catch cold?'. My point is it's not just Koreans. |
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the_beaver
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2004 7:56 pm Post subject: |
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| matthewwoodford wrote: |
| But, if a westerner says going from straight from a hot and damp environment to an environment with a chill breeze can bring on a cold, you're less likely to go 'What a backward country! |
I'm less likely to say nothing of the sort. |
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