The gas stations in my area have recently begun posting signs that not only must the ignition be off, but all cell phones must be off also. This is obviously because of a fear that the electronics might ignite the fuel fumes. I am pretty sure that I saw Cecil talk about this recently, and his conclusion was something like, “Yeah, it is possible. But a lit cigarette is an even bigger danger, and that never happens either.” But I cannot find this column. Does it sound familiar to anyone else?
Check out about.com under the heading Urban Legends And Folklore. There has never been a documented case of a cell phone causing an explosion. Motorola in its manuel does say not to use the cell phone when dispensing gasoline.
I believe snopes.com has discussed this recently. IIRC, they advise you to heed the warning. I also seem to recollect there have been such incidents somewhere (in Asia?), but don’t take my word for it.
The bottom line is that sparks from the
brushes on your starter and alternator, or from faulty plug wires, or dozens of solenoids are thousands of times more likely to trigger an explosion… Maybe the gas stations should require that you kill your engine before you enter the station and push your vehicle up to the pump - then push it away and start your engine when you’re well clear of the pumps…
Not to mention attach a static strap to the vehicle as they do when refueling aircraft… which might have the added advantage of dissipating the static charge on your body so you don’t fry the chip in your phone when you call Mom to come pay for your gas because you forgot your wallet.
Apparently, Australia and Malaysia have warnings in their gas stations. Finland is close to banning the use of cell phones in gas stations and Cicero, IL has made it illegal.
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, tammigold, we’re glad to have you with us. Please note that the prior post in this thread is from 1999; it’s what we call a “zombie” thread. That’s OK, I just want to alert everyone, since some/many of the posters in the thread up till now are no longer posting or reading here.
I thought I saw this one on Mythbusters and they weren’t able to create an explosion like that.
Yep, they busted it. Adam: No cell phone will ever cause a gas station to ignite.
However, they did find that if you get into your car while you’re pumping and then get back out to finish pumping, there’s a good chance you’ll build up a static charge which then can cause a fire when you touch the pump handle.
The fireman that I asked about it (who was smoking while sitting on a 5 gallon Jerry can full of gas) didn’t say a word. He just got up, opened the lid and extinguished the cigarette in the gas. Then I got a ten minute lecture on combustion temperatures and flash points. He did say lighting the cigarette around gas fumes was a no-no, however.
Theoretically it’s possible but it’s extremely unlikely. The only part on a modern cell that would make a significant spark would be disconnecting the battery while in full 2 watt transmit mode.
IF the signal to the nearest repeater was so weak you were transmitting full power AND you dropped the phone AND it broke open AND it dislodged the battery AND the air/gas vapor ratio around you was exceedingly rich (richer than what would be required for the sources JoeyBlades mentioned to ignite the whole station) AND the air/gas vapor ratio inside the phone case at the battery terminals at the instant the circuit was broken was in the explosive range, you might get there.
In the UK all gas stations have signage prohibiting the use of cell phones. This has been usually attributed to the potential to spark and cause a fire. I’m sure that there is enough energy in a fully charged cell phone to cause this, but you need more than the stored energy, you have to be able to generate the source of ignition. As others have pointed out, this is very unlikely and other sources of ignition are a much bigger risk.
There is another reason not to use cell phones around gas stations, particularly the older and analogue models. They can interfere with the metering systems that are used to dispense the gas. As a process control engineer many years ago in my somewhat checkered career, the use of any transmitting equipment near any measurement, metering or similar equipment was a no no.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this was another example of where health and safety was being used in place of a more rational, but less publicly acceptable reason to modify behaviours.
In the 70s when the world was young and I dodged dinosaurs on the way to school, I worked in a full service gas station, a thing now as hard to find as one of those dinosaurs which were my friends and playmates. One pastime was to half-fill a bucket with gas (hey, it was cheap then) and flick cigarette buts (lit of course) into it. (Hey, everybody smoked, too. That’s why *you *don’t have to dodge the dino poo). Freaked the customers.
I suspect that link was a perfectly good one…when it was originally posted almost 13 years ago. (Heck, Alphagene hasn’t even logged on to the boards in over seven years.)
I probably should have said “Dead link from Alphagene.”, but even with that minor error I think by clarifying that lighters were far more dangerous than cigarettes or cell phones and finding a current link for anyone interested in the referenced Snopes article I provided a much more useful service to the board than detailing just how dead the thread had been or how long the poster had been AWOL (absent with out log-in).