There is an opinion that sleeping in the room where the fan works all night can be harmful to health. Some even talk about a possible death. We checked how just this fear is from a scientific point of view.
In different sources - from sites For travelers to "Parliamentary newspaper" - the degree of hazard of sleep when the fan is included varies from the middle to the deadly. So, exists The belief that such a practice can lead to death from suffocation. Other warnings are less radical - among side effects, exacerbations are called allergies And asthma, dry skin and mucous membranes, Convulsions and chills.
The first fans, including Ceiling, appeared Back in the 19th century, and the fears that they can be a mortal hazard of health have spread in the first half of the 20th century. In 1927 in the Korean newspaper Jungoe Ilbo I went out The article, which reported: “The rotating fan blades create a vacuum immediately in front of themselves, which leads to insufficient supply of oxygen to the lungs.” These devices were also accused of provoking nausea, suffocation and paralysis of the facial nerve. However, in that material the warning did not report someone’s death and there was no confirmation that the fans are melting mortal danger.
Nevertheless, in South Korea, this belief continued to exist for decades. In 2006, local consumer protection society warned: If you have been in a closed room with a fan for a long time, you can die due to the fact that the concentration of carbon dioxide replacing oxygen will increase sharply in the room. The document stated that from 2003 to 2005, 20 deaths were registered in the country due to fans and air conditioners included during the dream. To reduce the threat, the organization advised to put auto -shutdown timers on devices, and for the duration of their operation it is imperative to open a door or window to ensure a tributary of fresh air.
However, such warnings are devoid of logic. The fan itself does not produce carbon dioxide and does not absorb oxygen as a person does during breathing. The device only creates air flows, but does not change its composition. Moreover, the rooms in residential buildings are not hermetic - even if you fall asleep in the room with closed windows and doors, it is impossible to use all oxygen and suffocate.
There is also a fear that the fan can lead to hypothermia of the body, including lethal ones. Hypothermia counts Reducing body temperature to 35 ° C, and threatening life - up to 28 ° C. However, to imagine that the fan will so much reduce body temperature in a healthy person and he will not wake up is extremely difficult. Dr. Lee Yun Sleep from the University of Seoul, who in the mid-2000s made autopsy of people who allegedly died due to the influence of the fan, celebratedthat all of them had serious heart diseases or they suffered from severe alcoholism.
The exact opposite fear is also common - supposedly the device can direct too hot air to a person and thereby provoke a thermal blow. At one time, the US Environmental Protection Agency in a memo of precautions during the heat warnedthat at air temperatures above +90 ° F (+32 ° C), you cannot be right in front of the air flow from the fan. In 2015, scientists are experimentally refuted This point of view - even at air temperature close to the temperature of the human body, fans are not dangerous, since air flows from these devices still contribute to more active sweating and cooling. At the same time, experts write, you should not be afraid of dehydration due to active sweating-the calculations show that warnings about this risk are exaggerated. According to existing studies, in conditions of low (up to 20%) humidity, the fan is safe and useful even at air temperatures over +50 ° C. For comparison, global temperature record He was recorded in 1913 in the United States - almost +57 ° C. In conditions of humidity close to 90%, fans are useful for cooling the body at air temperatures up to +38 ° C.
It turns out that the use of a fan during sleep cannot lead to death in any way. Moreover, how found out American pediatricians in 2008, the work of this electrical appliance in a room where an infant is sleeping under the age of a year, on the contrary, reduces the risk of sudden children's mortality syndrome, caring Every year of life is more than 30,000 children, for impressive 72%. The most pronounced decrease was among babies who were forced to sleep in the heat of the heat or entered into risk groups - they slept on the side or on their stomach and did not use a dummy.
At the same time, fans can really render A certain negative effect on health: due to the active circulation of air, to enhance the existing allergy to the pollen of plants or indoor dust, as well as dry the mucous membrane and skin. However, all these negative phenomena, firstly, can occur when using a fan both during sleep and during wakefulness, and secondly, these effects are very easy to level. So, with a tendency to allergies to the pollen of plants or homemade dust, alleviate the condition Maybe Cleaning, and regular, and not just before using the fan. If the room is too dry, then the mucous membranes and skin will suffer in any case, the fan will only aggravate the problem. That is why it is so important to monitor the humidity of the air and maintain its comfortable level. A similar story with asthma - Pollen and indoor dust can enhance its symptoms, therefore, if a person suffers from this disease, you should not use a fan in uncleaned rooms.
The non -profit organization Epilepsy Action Australia, which helps people with epilepsy, reports that rotating fan blades can also call A convulsive seizure, but only in those suffering from photosensitive epilepsy, in which observation of flickering or moving objects can provoke an attack. However, in order to avoid trouble, it is enough simply not to look at the working fan, and during sleep such people have nothing to fear at all. In children with epilepsy, hot weather itself and the subsequent sharp cooling of the body Maybe Call convulsions, but the reason is precisely in body temperature, and not in the operation of the electrical appliance.
Thus, the common fears regarding sleep in the same room with the fan are found are groundless. This electrical appliance cannot blow out all the oxygen from the premises, harvesting it with carbon dioxide, cool a person to death or provoke a lethal overheating. In conditions of low humidity, the fans are effective at almost any temperature, and at high humidity - until the thermometer column rises above +38 ° C. The largest troubles that the fan can provoke is a dryness of mucous membranes and skin, as well as a deterioration in allergy or asthma symptoms. However, the fan operation can lead to such consequences, regardless of whether a person is sleeping or awake, and the negative effects themselves are easily eliminated by regular cleaning and maintaining a sufficient level of humidity in the room.
Image on the cover: Dall-E
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