Film, Media & TV1 min ago
brainiacs
Answers
No best answer has yet been selected by fleckboy. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.However this guy is scientific:
http://www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/staff/burgess.htm
Dr. Adam Burgess has published
Health Risks and Rumours at the Petrol Station: The Curious Case of Mobile Phones, Fire and Body Static
In this paper he points out that of the 243 petrol station fires in the last 11 years not one was caused by a mobile phone.
"The petrol station/mobile phone story crosses into the realm of rumour and urban legend," Dr Burgess said.
"Even on an oil rig, the only real reason not to use a mobile is because of the issue of distraction."
Dr Burgess said the Piper Alpha tragedy of 1988, when 167 men died off the coast of Scotland after an explosion, gave "shape and momentum" to the drive for safety.
He said bans on mobiles at service stations were the result of "a relatively instinctive precautionary response".
http://www.snopes.com/autos/hazards/gasvapor.a sp
Whilst the manufacturers do recommend turning off your phone while filling up, I strongly suspect that they say this in fear of running up against the combination of a young attractive litigant; a -shall we say- 'less than completely objective' expert witness; and a sympathetic jury, rather than in the belief that use of their equipment will actually injure someone. There is no downside to them offering this advice, even if it is nonsense.
The mobile phone has quite a powerful transmitter which requires considerable current to be switched on and off. When you switch off there is a spark at the switch.
Of course, the chance of actually causing this is fairly minimal, given the casing of the phone. I've certainly never received a shock from the spark as I turn my phone on or off!
"Try connecting a flash lamp bulb to a battery in a darkened room. When you disconnect the wire, even that small current
will give a visible spark which could ignite petrol fumes.(Nothing to do with shock nor being surrounded by plastic)"
fo3nix, while you are right in saying switching off a transmitter will cause a spark at the switch, this isn't very likely to happen in a mobile because (in common with almost all electronic gadgetry today) it will be switched on/off by a transistor switch, not a mechnical one. No spark.
CT: yes indeed, I often get a shock off my car door handle!
mobile phones emmit / recieve microwave ratiation. thin bits of metal, such as a splinter, a mesh or a fuel filter are vunerable to become recievers for this type or radiation. it is rare for it to happen, but take this from me; mobile phones are able to cause tiny sparks on matalic meshes and other stuff similar to them. the sparks to the the potential to ignite the vapour from high grade hydrocarbon, suchas petrol, not so much desil but petrol deffinatly!
i am a pilot, who prefers to refuel his own light aircraft, the petrol used in avation (AV-GAS) is very volitile, and i have seen a man refuel his light aircraft whilst on his phone. he spent a month in hospital recovering from a flash fire which left half of his face horribly distorted.
don't use a moble near petrol, or a quarry, as the detinators can be set off by the signal given out by phones
lord molly