Talk:Fan death

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Nehemiah V.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 21:09, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Proposed causes
Anyone else notice none of the proposed causes is...actually a plausible cause? 2601:547:C000:D240:A061:26F9:12A8:9D1D (talk) 17:44, 10 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Indeed we do. That's because it's not a real thing. -Roxy, the PROD. . wooF 18:53, 10 April 2020 (UTC)


 * The true cause is being covered up. In over 99 % of cases of so-called fan death, there was a floor nearby. Proximity to floors is the real cause; it's dangerous to be within a mile of any floor. :) TooManyFingers (talk) 00:30, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

persisted to the early 2000s
The introduction currently states "belief in fan death persisted to the early 2000s" which implies that it has recently died out. (early 2000s sounds like pre-2020 to me) Is that true? The sources are all in Korean, so as a monolingual American (alas) I can't tell. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 13:32, 23 June 2021 (UTC)
 * I agree. And now it says mid 2000s which is 500 years from now. Jikybebna (talk) 08:46, 12 December 2021 (UTC)

carbon monoxide
Early portable fans used a universal type motor with carbon brushes to drive the fan. It is not improbable for a failure or unstable electrical supply to cause arcing in those brushes with associated CO generation.

In a small closed environment with many hours of exposure, this may be sufficient to poison the victim.

Modern fans do not suffer this problem as low cost shaded pole motors have replaced small universal motors. 2001:8004:1283:F7CA:2B71:7C89:BF24:5B5E (talk) 10:31, 21 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Interesting but useless WP:OR that wont be included in the article. -Roxy the grumpy dog . wooF 17:20, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

Causes of death
I heard somewhere that suicide by hanging is written off as "fan death" and that's why this superstition exist. Can someone confirm whether or not this is true or false? Flossingjonah (talk) 04:59, 8 August 2023 (UTC)