What a Fan Does to Your Body When You're Asleep

today's episode is on superstition so wish us luck oh goodness [Music] every culture has its own unique urban legends if you're in North America you've likely heard that 13 is unlucky if you step on a crack break your mother's back and that caffeine stunts growth which is just ridiculous bean drinks coffee all the time and look at how Biggie's gotten superstitions like these are why in Peru it's believed fridges can cause cancer in Russia celebrating your birthday too early causes bad luck and in South Korea sleeping in a sealed room with your fan comes at the cost of your life by which I mean the machine not the other kind will we'll talk about those more later but what exactly does this myth involve and could it be more to it than meets the eye well prepare to sit back and cool off while we dig into this chill topic hey bro did you call huh oh no you're you're good you melatonin blessed man you also how'd you get in here today's episode is exploring a widespread belief from a certain culture I'm not here to judge anyone's culture just to explore the health effects of using electric fans and the evidence behind popular beliefs every culture has its own superstitions and there's no shame in that if you have any health concerns about your fan or air conditioner unit you can always check the labels on the box or talk to your doctor and with that out of the way let's get into it fans we know them we love them they keep us nice and cool in the warmer months that turns sunshine and rainbows into a nightmarish lightning filled Inferno or so I hear is it possible that they cool us down too much though that's one of the beliefs behind the myth that in a sealed room the use of an electric fan will cause the body temperature lower resulting in hypothermia or that's the claim at least the reports ago that the air circulation in a sealed room along with a sleeping person and often a round of drinking the night before can cause fatally low temperatures others claim that the fan can cause a vortex affair and suffocate you buildup of carbon dioxide caused by other the fans motor the fan actively converting oxygen to carbon dioxide and other seemingly less popular reasonings hmmm something seems off here and it's not my coffee like with many superstitions the exact cause is up for debate though hypothermia seems to be the most commonly cited cause I know what you're thinking is that even possible well no probably not but there are those who claim it is in an interview with Korea's June and Ailee doctor Yun dong soo the Dean of Guangdong University's medical school refuted explanations like carbon dioxide buildup in suffocation but claimed that the hypothermia concerns were well warranted 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 and they feel cold but if you're drunk you will not wake up even if your body temperature drops below 35 degrees Celsius at which point you can die from hypothermia this story is so widespread that warning labels and automatic shutoff timers are common on electric fans in South Korea the Korea Consumer Protection Board and Korea Consumer Agency have even reportedly warned that electric fans can cause hypothermia and suffocation that's not to say that everyone in the medical community agrees of course gord Giesbrecht hae is professor popsicle again a physical education professor from the University of Manitoba said that for hypothermia to be a concern someone's body temperature would have to drop by 10 degrees overnight more than what a fan can do guys Burke added we've got people lying in snow banks overnight here in Winnipeg and they survive which isn't really news people from Winnipeg are basically thermoses on legs according to doctor Lee Eun sung a professor at Seoul's national University's medical school the most likely culprit is pre-existing conditions like heart problems or alcoholism and that media misrepresentation is the reason why the myth is so widespread just go on the internet and tell lies shun rim a professor at the Department of nuclear and quantum engineering at the Korea advanced Institute of Science and Technology who I was a mouthful even took things a step further and tested the myth himself studying his 11 year old daughter overnight in a sealed room with a fan he kept track of her temperature and vitals every five minutes and it may not come as much of a surprise but both he and his daughters survived the night but where did this myth come from well some claim that it originated in the 1970s pushed by the government during an energy crisis so people would use less power at night this explanation makes sense since according to a McLean's article released in 2015 south korea was importing 96% of their energy however by taking a closer look it seems the myth dates all the way back to an article published in 1927 in the genoa lava or domestic and international daily at that time it was claimed that the use of a fan came with a risk of nausea facial paralysis and even suffocation but that was over 90 years ago why does this myth persist it may be our old friend correlation and causation South Korean summers are hot and humid and it wouldn't be surprising that many people who lose their lives to various complications might have fans running that combined with the already existing superstitions would leave an easy culprit to blame and an easy cause to avoid so that's it while there are some medical sources that support the idea that fans can have negative consequences I've looked into it and it's actually wait actually oh well then this case just got a lot more interesting while the specific myth of fan death may be isolated to South Korea warnings about the negative health impacts of using electric fans have spread far and wide especially in the summer these claims have even gained attention from the World Health Organization the Ontario government in Canada the National Health Service in the UK and the Environmental Protection Agency and Center for Disease Control in the US yeah right during a string of heat waves during the 1980s and 1990s the EPA and CDC released warnings about fan use in enclosed rooms according to the warnings while fans may provide relief at temperatures below 95 degrees at higher temperatures the direct airflow from fans can evaporate sweat and caused to increase dehydration this is an evaporation opportunity as dr. Lawrence Larry Cox Dean of the University of Miami calls it dr. Cox Dean served as a climatologist who helped write the EPA's guidelines and posits that moisture from the body evaporates a lot faster and therefore unless you replenish it quickly enough it can create a heat problem for you toxin also serves as one of the reasons why the belief that fans are harmful remains prevalent in Korea when asked by journalists if he believed in the myth cos Dean had a loss in translation moment and responded to the unfamiliar term with yes fans can create a problem but while Cox Dean may not believe that fans can cause loss of life directly even his comments on dehydration have recently been called into question in 2015 a study conducted by researchers at the University of Ottawa and the University of Sydney found that electric fans prevented heat related elevations in both heart rate and core temperature among their study of 8 participants and that advice to the public to stop using fans during heat waves may need reevaluation more recently on August 5th 2019 dr. Ali Jay from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney one of the same co-authors of the previous joint Ottawa Sydney study released a study finding that even above recommended heat levels electric fans still lowered core temperatures it should be noted though that the same study found that in very hot dry conditions fans did cause detrimental effects and it's important to point out that both of these studies were carried out on small samples of young healthy people and that dr. Jay himself pointed out that larger studies were required so are there any other health concerns from fans yes actually but only for specific people according to some sources the use of fans could trigger irritation from people prone to allergies and asthma as dust and pollen in the air circulate around the room and while it's certainly not death inducing that's still nothing to sneeze at which is all before we get into indirect effects here's the thing about air conditioners they use a lot of power imagine if this candy was an air conditioner and this bowl is the power grid now while it can hold a handful of candies they can't take all of the and and out with these coffee beans are the appliances and these are and this and oh you know that's not gonna be good oh oh and the popcorn is I'll be honest this one got away from me a bit when temperatures rise air conditioner and fan use increases when more people use air conditioners they add strain to the power grid according to Direct Energy the heat also means that transmission lines have a lower capacity of the increased strain can lead to them drooping and eventually short-circuiting when enough lines short-circuit there aren't enough lines to provide everyone with power resulting in a blackout as recently as July 2019 in and around the New York City area asked residents to be mindful of their electricity use before a heatwave with con Edison spokesman Alan Drury sang the demand for power can increase as the heat wave goes on because people become less resistant more willing to turn their air-conditioning on and up but there are also ways to limit electricity use in the summer and not use as much electricity among the suggestions provided to New York residents we're keeping blinds drawn when facing the Sun running appliances in the early morning or late evening and using fans which use one-tenth the electricity of an air-conditioner which is a relief since staying cool lets me stay where I'm happiest inside so can fans harm you well it certainly seems unlikely not unless you happen to have allergies that are being irritated by the pollen and dust in the air or possibly if you're using one in the scorching dry heat but in that case just be sure to keep yourself well hydrated drink water try taking a cool shower and make sure to keep the blinds closed when the Sun is out and if you have any concerns it never hurts to talk to a doctor about what they'd recommend to beat the heat so until next time stay chill oh oh I didn't forget I realize now that when I asked about people sending me some fanart I neglected a secondary definition of the word so you know that's on me but at the same time beam and I are very impressed with how good this is and I want to thank you all for your support I don't know when this is gonna come out or if it's gonna make our 200k milestone but regardless of whether it does or not I just want to say from all of us thank you thanks for sticking around oh this is all too familiar look at that this is I mean I'm not saying no oh we've got a running theme with the with the combing hair situation I respect the line paper my favorite color who are you people [Music]

Channel: Brew

Views: 3,461,637

Rating: 4.8734965 out of 5

Keywords: sleeping with fan on is bad, sleeping with fan, unsolved, unsolved mysteries, solved mysteries, unsolved cases, mystery, unsolved mystery, theory, investigate, investigation, mysteries unsolved, mysteries solved, solved mystery

Id: RGIl2oC1k50

Length: 13min 13sec (793 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 28 2019