Death by Fan

Summer is long gone, but I thought I'd share with you an interesting superstition that I heard during the hot season. The way this urban legends goes, is that if you sleep in a closed room containing a running electric fan you could die. Fan death can come about by hypothermia, asphyxiation or heat exhaustion. It is said that an electric fan creates a vortex, which sucks the oxygen from the enclosed and sealed room and creates a partial vacuum inside.
This is widely believed here in South Korea. A couple of my friends have insisted with me that this is not a superstition...it is fact. However if this were really the truth, then how is it that the only country in the world that knows about fan death is Korea? If this were really true, I would have died at least a thousand deaths by now.
 It is not really known where this belief started, but there is a conspiracy theory that the South Korean government started this myth as propaganda to reduce energy consumption during the 1970s energy crisis. One thing for sure is that the media continues to spread this rumor about fan death and recommends people to have their fans on a timer and to keep their doors open.

If you were to buy a fan here in Korea, most come with cut-off timer switches.


So what do you think? Truth or superstition?