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Comment by jere | Hacker News Reader

A similar phenomenon makes it dangerous to sleep without proper ventilation:

>It is important that crew accommodations be well ventilated; otherwise, astronauts can wake up oxygen-deprived and gasping for air, because a bubble of their own exhaled carbon dioxide has formed around their heads.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station#Cre...

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My first thought on reading "crew quarters must be well ventilated" was - like, opening the windows?

Then I remembered.

Luckily I am not on safety critical work for NASA

When I read "It is important that crew accommodations be well ventilated; otherwise, astronauts can wake up ..." my mind completed with "asphyxiating in a vacuum".

This sounds like the exact opposite of fan death.

Because it's real?

The funny part is fans mix gases and prevent exactly the scenario they're accused of causing in fan death (assuming we're talking about asphyxiation and not hypothermia... the hypothermia concern is beyond ridiculous). I don't think I've ever even heard of fan death, but I checked and the issue I mentioned in the OP is actually discussed on the fan death wikipedia page.

This seems relevant.. old concrete can often emit significant levels of Radon that will tend toward floor level. It's supposedly quite important to properly vent old basements on a semiregular basis for this reason. In such an environment, a fan left running overnight may easily contribute to increased mortality.

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