|
Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Cohiba
Joined: 01 Feb 2005
|
 Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 6:01 pm Post subject: Fan Death is NOT a Joke - It Happens |
 |
|
I work in a factory and one day I made a joke to my boss,
an engineer, about fan death. I was thinking that surely this
scientifically educated person wouldn't believe such a thing.
It turns out that I was mistaken. Deaths due to fans have
been documented in more countries than Korea.
What the fan does is cause hypothermia. If you are sweating
profusely and can't wake up, the fan can lower your internal
temperature to dangerous levels. This is even more
dangerous if the sweat is caused by a fever. The deaths
recorded with fans being a contributing factor usually happen
to the very young or old.
The point is it does happen. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
sportsguy35
Joined: 27 Apr 2005
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 6:36 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| yes, thank you for explaining it, I couldnt put it into words myself. I live with a Korean family and they always come in at night and turn off my fan for me. Didnt know why at first, I thought they were trying to save on electricity... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
noelinkorea
Joined: 09 Apr 2003
Location: Shinchon, Seoul
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 6:39 pm Post subject: and... |
|
|
| it's also a fact that autopsies are not ususally conducted on corpses in Korea...so how they actually know that the fan did it is beyond my reckoning... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 6:54 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Yes, if the room temperature is already marginally warm, like in March and October, then sure, it makes sense as a contributing factor which affects a degree or two or three difference.
But Koreans are fearful during the summer, when the fans help offset hot nights.
What fan in what household will lower room temperature from 25+ C down to hypothermic levels?
None. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
sheba
Joined: 16 May 2005
Location: Here there and everywhere!
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 7:15 pm Post subject: |
|
|
The room temperature does not need to change to cause hypothermia... only your body temperature, and I may be wrong (??) but its only a matter of 2 degrees drop in body temperature to cause hypothermia.
I can see how that would happen if you're sweating... they whole point of sweating is to lower your body's temperature, and a fan speeds up the process. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 7:39 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| sheba wrote: |
| The room temperature does not need to change to cause hypothermia... only your body temperature, and I may be wrong (??) but its only a matter of 2 degrees drop in body temperature to cause hypothermia. |
So a fan is gonna lower body temperature by two whole degrees even though the room temperature isn't changed much?
It'd be nice if some sound science were to be used here even if it were to be misapplied. In its absence, here's a substitute:
| JoongAng newspaper wrote: |
Dr. Yeon Dong-su, dean of Kwandong University's medical school, who has investigated some cases of "fan deaths," refuted some of the wilder theories but insisted fan deaths do occur.
"Many people say that these victims die from lack of oxygen, but that is not true," Dr. Yeon wrote. "Hypothermia does not only occur in the winter when it is cold. The symptoms can also take place if a person has been drinking and turns on a fan in a closed room. Most people wake up when they feel cold, but if you are drunk you will not wake up, even if your body temperature drops below 35 degrees Celsius (95 F), at which point you can die from hypothermia. |
So it's also partially because of soju!
| Quote: |
Gord Giesbrecht, a physical education professor at the University of Manitoba in Canada, is a leading expert on hypothermia. He said he has never heard of fan death or anything like it.
"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. We've got people lying in snowbanks overnight here in Winnipeg and they survive," he said.
Is it possible to get hypothermia from a fan? "Maybe if someone was elderly and they were sitting there for three days," he said. "Someone is not going to die from hypothermia because their body temperature drops two or three degrees overnight; it would have to drop eight to 10 degrees." |
| Quote: |
A wider search of Korean newspapers shows that each summer from 1990 to 2004, about 10 stories related to someone dying in the presence of an electric fan were published. Some of the deaths were chalked up to electrical failure of the fan and related fires, but many of them said the victims died from suffocation or hypothermia because the windows and doors were closed...
Dr. Lee Yoon-song is a professor at Seoul National University's medical school and works with the school's Institute of Scientific Investigation. He has conducted autopsies on some of the people who have been described in Korean media as having succumbed to fan death.
"When someone's body temperature drops below 35 degrees, they do start to lose judgment ability," he said. "So if someone was hiking and later found dead, that could be part of the reason. But we can't really apply this to fan accidents. I found most of the victims already had some sort of disease like heart problems or serious alcoholism. So hypothermia is not the main reason for death, but it may contribute."
Dr. Lee blamed the Korean media for the persistence of the urban myth. "Korean reporters are constantly writing inaccurate articles about death by fan, describing these deaths as being caused by the fan. That's why it seems that fan deaths only happen in Korea, when in reality these types of deaths are quite rare.
"They should have reported the victim's original defects such as heart or lung disease, which are the main cause of death [in these cases]," Dr. Lee said. "If a Western doctor investigated these deaths, he would say what really caused the death, and say that a fan was beside the victim."
Ken Kaliher would agree. He has lived in Korea for 33 years, since he first came with the Peace Corps. A collector of off-the-wall news stories, he heard about fan deaths when he first arrived in Korea. But he's never heard of them in any of the many countries he's visited, he said.
"If a story appears in the newspaper, it generally won't get a skeptical response from Koreans," Mr. Kaliher said. "Koreans also tend to believe anything a doctor tells them. They don't usually ask doctors questions."
Ms. Noh, a 20-something who works in the Seoul Metropolitan Education Office, said she learned about fan death from the articles she read every summer. "It's not something we're scared of, but we do think it's weird or abnormal."
Did she ever have a brush with fan death?
"I tried it once, and nothing happened," she said, laughing. "But maybe it's because I had a small fan." |
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200409/22/200409222123324579900091009101.html
Last edited by VanIslander on Fri Aug 12, 2005 7:43 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
cubanlord
Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Location: In Japan!
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 7:40 pm Post subject: |
|
|
ok...fine....let's do some research:
Sheba: since you are adimant in proving that fan death occurs, research the number of deaths per year associated with fan death. I would like the paper to be no more than 5 pages, double-spaced, 1" margins; APA style format please. Don't forget the works cited (as it would be the most important part of the paper).  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 8:03 pm Post subject: Re: Fan Death is NOT a Joke - It Happens |
|
|
| Cohiba wrote: |
I work in a factory and one day I made a joke to my boss,
an engineer, about fan death. |
Doesn't have the same ring to it as "my boss, a world renowned researcher" or even "my boss, a doctor".
| Quote: |
Deaths due to fans have
been documented in more countries than Korea. |
Hearsay, or can you actually provide a couple of examples? I for one would step back and re-examine my position on fan death if you could.
| Quote: |
What the fan does is cause hypothermia. If you are sweating
profusely and can't wake up, the fan can lower your internal
temperature to dangerous levels. This is even more
dangerous if the sweat is caused by a fever. The deaths
recorded with fans being a contributing factor usually happen
to the very young or old.
The point is it does happen. |
How does the 'sealed room' enter into the equation? This is the key for all fan deaths, as any Korean can tell you, but what you've descrivbed sounds like it could hap[pen regardless of whether or not a room was well-ventilated.
This is old, it's been posted here many times, but one more couldn't hurt:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a970912.html
Van Islander has posted many quotes from this article but you can read it in its entirety here:
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Fan-death |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
pegpig
Joined: 10 May 2005
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 8:13 pm Post subject: Re: Fan Death is NOT a Joke - It Happens |
|
|
| Cohiba wrote: |
If you are sweating
profusely and can't wake up, the fan can lower your internal
temperature to dangerous levels. |
Let's see if I've got this right. You're sweating profusely WITH the fan blowing air over your body. I'd say the person is sick to begin with or is living in an oven. Who sweats profusely with a fan blowing over them at night? It wouldn't hurt for Koreans to open their windows then, if they're so concerned. Most Koreans that I know (except the wife) can fall asleep at the drop of a hat and can sleep through anything.
Fan death. When will it ever end?  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 8:18 pm Post subject: Re: Fan Death is NOT a Joke - It Happens |
|
|
| Cohiba wrote: |
I work in a factory and one day I made a joke to my boss,
an engineer, about fan death. I was thinking that surely this
scientifically educated person wouldn't believe such a thing.
It turns out that I was mistaken. Deaths due to fans have
been documented in more countries than Korea.
What the fan does is cause hypothermia. If you are sweating
profusely and can't wake up, the fan can lower your internal
temperature to dangerous levels. This is even more
dangerous if the sweat is caused by a fever. The deaths
recorded with fans being a contributing factor usually happen
to the very young or old.
The point is it does happen. |
OK, so I'm supposed to believe him because he's an engineer. News flash, engineers aren't medical experts. Trust me instead, I'm a biochemist. Fan deaths are urban legends. Fans can only superficially reduce body temperature. Read up on vasoconstriction and its role in the regulation and control of temperature, if you don't understand what I'm talking about. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 8:30 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| sheba wrote: |
The room temperature does not need to change to cause hypothermia... only your body temperature, and I may be wrong (??) but its only a matter of 2 degrees drop in body temperature to cause hypothermia.
I can see how that would happen if you're sweating... they whole point of sweating is to lower your body's temperature, and a fan speeds up the process. |
Your body temperature would have to drop to below 30C for you to get hypothermia, which is a very difficult thing to do unless you're exposed to close to, or below, freezing temperatures. Essentially, you're body will remain warm in all other conditions because 1) burning food for energy produces heat 2) you're always burning food for energy 3) your body wants to keep a constant temperature in order to function properly and is adapted to do so.
Go in the sun, take your temperature and then take it again after standing in front of a fan. You'll see your body temperature will remain unchanged. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
chiaa
Joined: 23 Aug 2003
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 9:51 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| If I start off by sweating a lot and my temperture goes down between the fan and the sweat, would I not stop sweating thus adjusting my temperture? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Cohiba
Joined: 01 Feb 2005
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:21 pm Post subject: Fan Death |
|
|
I think a lot of you people should put more effort into reading
and comprehending, rather than denying and poopooing.
IF you read the original post carefully you will notice that I said
that hypothermia is more of a possibility when you have a fever,
i.e. you are sick. In this situation your body may not have the
normal responses to warmth and cold. ALSO, I said this is also
more prevalent with the very old and very young. Couple that
with sickness and hypothermia is possible.
My boss is an electrical engineer and knows everything about
stuff. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
funplanet
Joined: 20 Jun 2003
Location: The new Bucheon!
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:25 pm Post subject: |
|
|
you, my friend, are truly gullible...and your "boss" is just an ole superstitituous kind of guy...
fan death does not exist except in the minds of the feeble.... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Cohiba
Joined: 01 Feb 2005
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:34 pm Post subject: Fan Death |
|
|
| So I guess you are a firm believer. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
