mobile phones

[ludwig]

Why are you supposed to switch them off at petrol stations?

[WoWo]

Because there is a risk a spark may be produced by the phone which could ignite the petrol. Its unlikely but better safe than sorry.

[pinus]

There's a large body of feeling that we have another urban myth here. http://www.ephotozine.com/forum/viewanswers.cfm?qid=12958&ca tid=18 http://www.snopes.com/autos/hazards/gasvapor.asp But as WoWo says bsts.

[berty2001]

In our tesco petrol station they actually have a picture of a burnt down petrol station wit the heading 'A mobilephone caused this. turn them off'. i always thought was urban myth but now not sure. However i still don't turn mine off, just don't make calls. Surely a spark could come as easily from your car, cd player, any elertical material infact.

[ludwig]

Can a mobile phone really generate a spark? Surely the static generated from nylon trousers would be more dangerous. Imagine that in your local Tesco - a picture of a burnt down petrol station with the message 'Nylon pants caused this - take them off'

[scatman]

It could in theory.. but could it actually ignoite anything? imho, no. There are a lot of other, more dangerous, things about that go unnoticed. But hey, you have a bucket of sand to put any fire out :)

[WoWo]

It is very very unlikely that this could happen but with the number of mobiles around these days there is at least some risk, in today's compensation culture the effort of putting up a poster is worth it for the petrol companies to shift blame in the event on any accident. I don't think its a problem with the phone making a spark under normal operation just the chance it could malfunction and cause a spark. Don't under estimate then explosive power of petrol, why do you think they use it in engines ? simply because it gives the biggest bang without being too destructive to the engine. Very dangerous stuff.

[ugly_bob]

Personally, I think it has absolutely nothing to do with sparks etc. It might just be another urban myth here, but i've heard that there is a small chance of them interfering with the pumps, giving you free petrol - something I'm sure they are much more worried about than their garages exploding - these are insured after all.

Saying this though, I think there's about as much chance of this as a phone actually interfering with a plane's navigation system - zilch. They just want the phone turned off because they're annoying!