Cell Phones and Gas Stations???

[Hatz]

Has anyone ever heard of this. Today my sister was at a gas station filling up her car when all of a sudden her pump turned off. The lady at the counter came out and told her they had to shut her pump off because she was on her cell phone. She was just sitting in the passenger side of the car leaving a message for my mom to call her back.

Anyways, a lady came out and told her they shut off her pump because there was an explosion on Horizon Drive (local street) when someone was pumping gas while talking on the cell phone.

Now I haven't been able to read the news paper or watch the local news to see what happened, but can this really happen? I don't see how talking on a cell phone can cause an explosion at a gas pump. As far as I know there aren't any igniting parts on a cell phone to cause a spark or anything with the fumes.

Anyone ever hear of something like this? I might have to investigate some more and see what the whole deal is about.

Hatz

[jeex]

gas fumes + spark from cell phone = fire..

i've really only heard of this when people are pumping gas & using a cell phone, not when they're inside of a car. was the door open or something?

the odds of it happening are really remote, but they jump on things like this to limit their liability.

[Craig Tucker]

Do you not have signs at your gas station which tell you not to use mobile phones.

It is common knowledge over here that you should not use a mobile phone at a petrol station.

[Hatz]

No I've never seen a sign with a warning like that on there. What makes a cell phone spark? I guess if you have a titanium phone and you drop it on the cement.

Maybe I am just stupid or something. Just never heard of it happening. I have heard of people and static electricity blowing themselves up. The mistake they make is not thinking, panicking and pulling the pump out while there is already a small fire.

Hatz

[pacmania_2001]

It's also the same here in Australia with a sign on the pump saying to turn off mobile phones, not smoke etc.

In a recent service station I went to it actually had a newspaper article about a taxi driver using his phone and an incident happening. I never heard anything in the news about it though so I think it may have been a mock report.

Like Jeex said, the chances are very remote and most service station attendants won't even look twice at you if you are talking on the phone whilst pumping gas.

From what my friend in the industry told me their still hasn't been conclusive evidence of a danger arising from mobile phones but to be safe they restrict them.

[sterno]

This has got to be the most prolific urban legend I have run across to date.

[gmatov]

I think it's a bunch of crap, propaganda,telling you yhat a purely solid state device can produce a spark, and an explosion, or a fire.

IF you had you phone set to vibrate, it is possible, if it is a current hogging, spark gap making, vibrater, simolar to s doorbell.

I think we are bieng brainwashed to the lowest common denominator. You are all stupid and we have all the soap boxes, and we got a regulation in place to make it a crime for you to do that. So, there.

Cheers,

george

[tgpo]

We have stickers on the pumps here in SC and GA saying to not use cell phones, turn the car off, and to only fill lisenced containers. There is also a picture of an ugly Police man saying if you fill your car up and drive off with out paying they'll take your lisence.

[indolikaa]

Yeah, we have those nice little signs posted at the local Union76. The people who smoke their cigarettes don't seem too concerned, though.

[fmctm1sw]

This has got to be the most prolific urban legend I have run across to date.

I think it's a bunch of crap, propaganda,telling you yhat a purely solid state device can produce a spark, and an explosion, or a fire.

I have to agree with these guys. I think it is baloney. I understand the "theory" I guess but I consider winter weather and sliding across my seat to get out of may car at a gas pump far more dangerous. I've nearly been electrocuted when I touch anything metal after getting out of my car. I've seen those sparks. I don't recall seeing any warnings about that.

What else I think is (mostly) baloney too is the dreaded "cell phones in airplanes mess up cockpit instruments."

[Hatz]

I have to agree on it being BS too. I just don't see what is making a spark. What part of the sell phone is doing this? Like gmatov said, possibly the vibrate mechanism.

You would think the big concern is smokers (common sense) and static electricity. Anything can be considered an ignitor.

Just like in chemistry class in middle school where some kid thinks its funny to leave the gas run all night. Then the janitor comes in to clean up in the morning and turns the lights on and BOOM. Couldn't someone turning on their lights and one blowing out or even the gas station turning their lights on at night and blowing one out. The possibilities are endless but I think cell phones are one of the last things that would cause this.

I think its just a bunch of BS and there are some other factors behind it.

Hatz

[indolikaa]

And what about all those people who pump Premium Unleaded gas into their tanks at the slowest possible rate while sitting inside their car with all the windows up?

Methinks that might be slightly more dangerous...

[pacmania_2001]

Natural selection gets rid of those stupid enough to smoke whilst pump gas.

Found this site in relation to dangers when filling up your car:

http://www.aip.com.au/industry/safety.htm

[Ziffelpig]

Having worked in the oil industry I can say first hand that it is not an urban legend, when working on oil lease sites(crude extraction) there comes a time when specialists come in to perforate the oil well casing. They use explosive type charges which are set at various parts of the casing, and then activated remotely. Signs are posted at any and all entrances to the lease telling people to turn of cells and mobile phones as they are hazardous to the perforation operation, and can/will prematurely set the perforation charges off.

[Hatz]

Interesting how they say it theoretically can release enough energy to create a spark. They also say do not re-enter your car.......lol, if its cold out, everyone I know does this. You don't see the gas station clerk coming out in the cold to tell them not to do it. :P

Hatz

[pacmania_2001]

Having worked in the oil industry I can say first hand that it is not an urban legend, when working on oil lease sites(crude extraction) there comes a time when specialists come in to perforate the oil well casing. They use explosive type charges which are set at various parts of the casing, and then activated remotely. Signs are posted at any and all entrances to the lease telling people to turn of cells and mobile phones as they are hazardous to the perforation operation, and can/will prematurely set the perforation charges off.

That sounds like it is more to do with interference of the signals than possible energy being released from the phones.

Like at our work, if we recieve a bomb threat you can't use a mobile phone or UHF radio in case the interference from that triggers the bomb.

[jeex]

Like at our work, if we recieve a bomb threat you can't use a mobile phone or UHF radio in case the interference from that triggers the bomb.

never heard of that one..

i'm still thinking the main reason this 'no mobile while pumping petrol' rule is in effect is to limit liability, even though it may have no scientific basis behind it.

maybe you should leave your keys in the car too, just incase when you're stepping out of the car they strike each other and create a spark as you go to put them in your pocket.

[Ziffelpig]

Conventional hot-wire and hot-resistor detonators are normally used in oilfield perforating operations and contain sensitive primary explosives such as lead azide, making them extremely sensitive to accidental initiation.They are very sensitive to the Radio Frequency (RF) sources and stray voltages found on well sites and offshore platforms, which means radio transmitter, electric welding and cathodic protection equipment need to be turned off during perforating and other wireline explosives operations.

[Cobra]

Here's why we aren't allowed. Have you ever accidentally put something metal in a microwave? Lots of sparks, etc. Great fun, as long as it's a University-owned microwave!

Mobiles like miniature microwave generators. They use microwave-frequency radio to communicate (hence all the panic over health) and could cause tiny, invisible sparks on metal surfaces they are in proximity to. This could, if you're extremely unlucky, start a fire.

The risk is probably very very tiny, but still it's for safety so you must observe the rules. Or else....

CobraDMX

[Conquest10]

Like at our work, if we recieve a bomb threat you can't use a mobile phone or UHF radio in case the interference from that triggers the bomb.

Where do you work?

[lordsmurf]

Sounds like BS. There's no way. I'd have better chances winning the lottery than I would blowing up a gas station from a cell hpone.

[The village idiot]

Can't say as I read the whole thing, but we have those signs too. All I can say is, whatever!

Guess we better outlaw wearing any king of wool clothing while pumping gas! As we all know, wool can be made to produce LARGE amounts of static electricity. Especially when used in concert with a balloon, so we better outlaw those at the pumps too.


What a large crock of $#!+

[gmatov]

Seems like it comes down to everybody versus the zifflepig..

If some explosives "Eexpert" was dumb enough to wire a radio, or radio sensitive detonating device to an explosive package, I would think he would go the Darwin route and not pass on his "knowledge".

We are building a new WallyMart a few miles from here and the hi-way has signs telling you to turn off any radio devices. Blasting Area. Hey, if the blasting device is radio op, don't connect it to the actual explosi9ve.

How damn many times have you seen the "experts" in a movie fasten the wires to the magneto AFTER the explosives are placed?

What the hell am I talking about?????

You are NOT going to ignite a gas pump by having a cell phone, still turned on, at a g'damned gas pump!

Chers,

George
edit: mispelled magneto above, so embarrassed.

[DereX888]

actually those signs are 'older' than cellphones themselves lol. It goes back to the times when mobile phones (not today's cellphones, the old radio-frequency-phones) used to have a rotary dialer, those were creating sparks whenever numbers were dialed on them. But nowaday its totally out of context, out of reality, and its more like a tell-tale, nothing else.

You cant create any sparks with your cellphone. Somebody's comparison of "university's" microwave and metal objects inside making sparks has nothing to do with cellphones; if it were true that normal cellphone could generate enough microwave energy to induce sparks on metal objects then obviously your cellphone's antenna (by the same comparison) should have melt down itself at very first use since it is made of rolled metal foils, right?

Another someone's comparison with oil field equipment etc - this is true since lots of equipment use various frequencies, including those similar to the ones used by mobile phones.
But I'd think that one must have used some very poor quality, cheapest China-make equipment, totally unshielded, operating on an analog and unencrypted cellphone bandwidths - if standard cellphone's frequency could interfere with it enough to be taken by mistake as an ignition code or screw up control station's

[Redman66]

If anyone gets the discovery channel, check out "MYTH BUSTERS". The busted that myth, but did find that people (mostly women) that get in and out of their vehicle during filling are at a severe risk of igniting gas fumes due to electro-static build-up just from entering and exiting the vehicle and then grabbing for the gas pump.....Same reason to turn off your vehicle while gassing up. (that and hot exhaust pipes)

But no cell phone fires as of yet..


8)

[Ziffelpig]

I'm not saying that a cell phone is going to generate a spark and create an explosion,but I believe certain radio frequencies can generate the development of an ignition source, your talking something almost microscopic, it wouldn't need much to be much to ignite gas fumes. Try using a cell phone in a critical area of a hospital like near an OR or ICU, or on a commercial aircraft on take off and landing, they don't want you using them because radio frequencies can create havoc by disrupting their electronic equipment.

[indolikaa]

Yeah, especially with the aforementioned cigarette smokers who are inside their car inhaling vast quantities of premium unleaded fumes.

I did hear about this once. Apparently, it is possible for cell phones to microscopically spark. Especially with lithium batteries. I wrote it off as an urban legend. But what the hell do I know...

[gmatov]

Bullshit, bulshit. bullshit..
You are driving by a hospital, talking on your 2.4 gig cell,,.and you screw up someone's heart monitor, in the hospital.
Crap. They would prefer you do not uye them.

Shit, I quit on this thread till tomorrow, drank too much beer, cheap stuff at that,, to keep on going o nn.

Sorry
Cheers,

George

[Cobra]

DereX888,

Just passing on what I heard. You say that mobile phones aren't powerful enough to generate any sparks, even microscopic ones? Why do you think I compared them to Uni microwaves?!

With regards to the hospital equipment, have you ever heard your mobile interfering with an amplifier/speaker or something? I think this is probably what they're worried about but I don't know if there's ever been a case where something has been adversely affected. It would have been all over the news and be a well known fact after that sort of incident.

CobraDMX

[bugster]

Think of it this way.

The average cellphone, when not in a call, is in receive only mode. They will only transmit a short burst, and by short I mean a few milliseconds long, once every 30 mins or so, just to remind the network that they are still swicthed on.

When you switch off your cell phone, it transmits a similiar burst informing the network is is being switched off and so cna no longer receive incoming calls.

IF cell phones transmissions could create a spark and so ignite petorl vapours, and evrybody who visted a petrol station followed the signs and switched off their cellphones when they pulled up at the the pump, then this 'advice' is actually massivley increasing the risk of fire!

Its a load of bull.

I'd have better chances winning the lottery than I would blowing up a gas station from a cell phone.

So true, but in the UK, I believe it is actually a legal requirement to turn off ANY transmitting devices when in a filling station. (So much for 'tracker' anti-theft devices then ).