# Another Possible UL? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 19, 1999, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-possible-ul/3320 "1999-09-19T18:14:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 1999, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-possible-ul/3320/1 "1999-09-19T18:14:00Z")
I “heard” in the past year of a person who had died as a result of sleeping in a small enclosed room, and being overly flatulent. It has all the UL earmarks–and I’m under the impression that flatulence is for the most part a voluntary action the does normally occur during sleep. Anyone else heard of this? ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 1999, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-possible-ul/3320/2 "1999-09-19T20:20:00Z")
Guess I better not fall asleep reading threads like these, where the guilty sphincters are not under my control. Ray ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 1999, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-possible-ul/3320/3 "1999-09-19T20:27:00Z")
Maybe if he had a hose connecting his anus and his mouth, and his nose was plugged? If this were true, I’d be dead. My hubby emits gas like a swamp. He’s nice enough not to move for awhile afterward though – if he fluffed the covers, I’d have to kill him. ---
**Author:** ![aseymayo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 1999, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-possible-ul/3320/4 "1999-09-19T22:04:00Z")
Auntie P - apparently your husband doesn’t know about the dreaded “dutch oven.” ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 1999, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-possible-ul/3320/5 "1999-09-19T23:14:00Z")
Okay, I gotta ask. ??? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 1999, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-possible-ul/3320/6 "1999-09-19T23:14:00Z")
Okay, I gotta ask. ??? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 1999, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-possible-ul/3320/7 "1999-09-19T23:15:00Z")
Shall I compound my error by saying “oops”? ---
**Author:** ![Louie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@Louie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Louie)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 1999, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-possible-ul/3320/8 "1999-09-19T23:41:00Z")
\A “dutch oven” is farting under the covers, then fanning the covers to get the fart smell come to you.\ ---
**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 1999, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-possible-ul/3320/9 "1999-09-19T23:41:00Z")
Dutch Oven: dreaded practice of passing gas in bed then pulling the sheets up and over the two of you. Legal grounds for divorce in 17 states. ## As for the UL query, I think this one may actually be true. IIRC, the victim subsisted mainly on a diet of cabbage and beans and kept the windows of his apartment closed very tight–tight enough so that the air circulation was practically non-existent. After one rather productive flatulence session enough methane was expunged from this poor guy’s colon to kill him, and since his apartment was in effect “air tight”, it did. Tim “My hovercraft is full of eels.” ---
**Author:** ![aseymayo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 1999, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-possible-ul/3320/10 "1999-09-20T00:27:00Z")
I don’t know, it sounds an awful lot like the “suffocate in sealed room with electric fan” story: [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/970912.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/970912.html) And you don’t pull the sheets over your _own_ head - you fart and quickly yank the blankies over your partner’s head! ---
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 1999, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-possible-ul/3320/11 "1999-09-20T02:45:00Z")
Sounds like a UL to me. It seems to me that any condition that is going to produce so much “gas” to kill a person is probably going to kill the person anyway. After all, the amount of gas produced by a sleeping person cannot have any more mass than the entire contents of the person’s digestive and excretory systems when they went to bed, can they? ---
**Author:** ![Louie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c68b51/32.png) [@Louie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Louie)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 1999, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-possible-ul/3320/12 "1999-09-20T05:24:00Z")
It’s not a UL, but a Darwin award nominee I heard about a year ago. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 1999, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-possible-ul/3320/13 "1999-09-20T07:40:00Z")
Lord knows I don’t plan on doing any research on this, but I would guess if you were in any enclosed place so small that the amount of flatulence you expelled was a significant threat, you would already be doomed because of oxygen deprivation. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 1999, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-possible-ul/3320/14 "1999-09-20T07:46:00Z")
The room would have to have a square footage not much greater than a bowel section. Hmmm. I just don’t see it. ---
**Author:** ![TheIncredibleHolg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8797f3/32.png) [@TheIncredibleHolg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheIncredibleHolg)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 1999, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-possible-ul/3320/15 "1999-09-20T09:08:00Z")
Well, maybe if there was a burning candle in the room… ---
**Author:** ![Temujin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Temujin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Temujin)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 1999, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-possible-ul/3320/16 "1999-09-20T09:47:00Z")
How would you word this in an obituary?