Cellular telephones are not designed for use in an environment where an ignitable atmosphere might exist. The owner's manual of most leading cell phone manufacturers states this fact quite clearly. This is also true of many pagers, particularly the "full function" types. Whether the manufacturers have actually tested their products to determine this or are just playing it safe is not known. (There are test procedures and evaluation methods available to determine the safety of a circuit in this regard. Such methods are used to determine the safety of instrumentation devices and wiring that will be used in chemical process operations and similar facilities.)
What's interesting is that some gas stations promote this legend.
I have seen a picture of a cellphone inside a red circle with a line through it while filling up my car. I also knew of one attendant who got a letter from head office quoting instances where this had happened. On further investigation, those instances were almost verbatim from urban myths.
I've never heard of the whole subject before this thread.
If you came to Finland and tried to hassle people talking on their cell phones when fueling, I bet you'd be considered a crazy person and the attendants would ask you to leave.
What's interesting is that some gas stations promote this legend.
I have seen a picture of a cellphone inside a red circle with a line through it while filling up my car. I also knew of one attendant who got a letter from head office quoting instances where this had happened. On further investigation, those instances were almost verbatim from urban myths.
I think the vast majority of petrol stations in England have signs prohibiting mobile phone use. I don't know how rigourously enforced it is, but the warnings are there.
Ok, I think the sensible reason you are not supposed to use cell phones in stations, is because they subscribe to the fast-in fast-out method of business.
They dont want you talking on the phones, because it slows down their turnaround time, and this costs them money. Not to mention the idiots who spill the stuff all over the floor because theyre still talking and their tank is full.
If macdonalds decided that too many people were holding up the queue because people were still cell phoning after receiving thier order, we'd have the myth that cell phones cause Big Macs to shrink and become carcinogenous,
Cell phones don't cause cancer at all. The whole thing was started by a lawyer that wanted to sue someone because his wife got a brian tumor. Her tumor was on the same side that she held her cell phone on so ... it must have been the cause.
You're kidding, right?! You have GOT to be kidding! Do you have a link for that? That's the best example of post hoc, ergo propter hoc I've ever seen....
SUDER: I initially the didn't use one because I wanted my privacy. But later in life, in the last -- since 1993, I haven't used one, because I believe in all of the things I've read, that constantly pounding radiation into your skull is not how God intended us to live.
i rarely use my cell phone, maybe 10-20 minutes a month, if that. in the back of my mind i do think about the RF
IEEE Spectrum, April 2004, pg 6. _Cellphones pose no gas station hazard._
"This statement, initially written by Frank Colville, Ken H. Joyner, and George Andrew Koban, was revised and approved by COMAR, the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society's Committee on Man and Radiation. It represents a consensus of its members."
Basically, it all boils down to urban legend. Not a single incidence of an explosion at a gas station by a cell phone could be tracked down, and indeed experiments attempting to confirm the possibility came up negative. The original source seems to be a report from 1993 in SE Asia. No proof it ever actually happened. Two 1999 studies showed that it was essentially impossible for RF to spark a fire at a gas station. A 2002 oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico that was said to have been caused by a cellphone... this cause was later ruled out by experimental data, and static discharge was fingered as the likely culprit.
I would think that the phone manufacturers and gas stations put those signs up in case of the following: A chain-smoker fills up while rubbing filled baloons in his hair and chatting on his StarTac. Filling station goes up. Motorola, Arco, and RJR can say "we warned ya!"
Comments
Originally posted by EmAn
I use my phone all the time while I pump gas and I'd be pretty pissed if some stranger came up to me and told me to stop.
maybe you'll be the first
this country is too cell phone addicted
Cellular telephones are not designed for use in an environment where an ignitable atmosphere might exist. The owner's manual of most leading cell phone manufacturers states this fact quite clearly. This is also true of many pagers, particularly the "full function" types. Whether the manufacturers have actually tested their products to determine this or are just playing it safe is not known. (There are test procedures and evaluation methods available to determine the safety of a circuit in this regard. Such methods are used to determine the safety of instrumentation devices and wiring that will be used in chemical process operations and similar facilities.)
from
well i found this
so maybe i'm wrong. who knows
I have seen a picture of a cellphone inside a red circle with a line through it while filling up my car. I also knew of one attendant who got a letter from head office quoting instances where this had happened. On further investigation, those instances were almost verbatim from urban myths.
don't use your iBook g4 around a gas station, those things shock me all the time.
If you came to Finland and tried to hassle people talking on their cell phones when fueling, I bet you'd be considered a crazy person and the attendants would ask you to leave.
Originally posted by JimDreamworx
What's interesting is that some gas stations promote this legend.
I have seen a picture of a cellphone inside a red circle with a line through it while filling up my car. I also knew of one attendant who got a letter from head office quoting instances where this had happened. On further investigation, those instances were almost verbatim from urban myths.
I think the vast majority of petrol stations in England have signs prohibiting mobile phone use. I don't know how rigourously enforced it is, but the warnings are there.
Amorya
They dont want you talking on the phones, because it slows down their turnaround time, and this costs them money. Not to mention the idiots who spill the stuff all over the floor because theyre still talking and their tank is full.
If macdonalds decided that too many people were holding up the queue because people were still cell phoning after receiving thier order, we'd have the myth that cell phones cause Big Macs to shrink and become carcinogenous,
oh, wait....
Originally posted by Scott
Cell phones don't cause cancer at all. The whole thing was started by a lawyer that wanted to sue someone because his wife got a brian tumor. Her tumor was on the same side that she held her cell phone on so ... it must have been the cause.
You're kidding, right?! You have GOT to be kidding! Do you have a link for that? That's the best example of post hoc, ergo propter hoc I've ever seen....
Cheers
Scott
http://www.askmen.com/sports/health_...ns_health.html
and this different one
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0008/09/lkl.00.html
Some others
Originally posted by Scott
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0008/09/lkl.00.html
Some others
this is funny
SUDER: I initially the didn't use one because I wanted my privacy. But later in life, in the last -- since 1993, I haven't used one, because I believe in all of the things I've read, that constantly pounding radiation into your skull is not how God intended us to live.
i rarely use my cell phone, maybe 10-20 minutes a month, if that. in the back of my mind i do think about the RF
IEEE Spectrum, April 2004, pg 6. _Cellphones pose no gas station hazard._
"This statement, initially written by Frank Colville, Ken H. Joyner, and George Andrew Koban, was revised and approved by COMAR, the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society's Committee on Man and Radiation. It represents a consensus of its members."
Basically, it all boils down to urban legend. Not a single incidence of an explosion at a gas station by a cell phone could be tracked down, and indeed experiments attempting to confirm the possibility came up negative. The original source seems to be a report from 1993 in SE Asia. No proof it ever actually happened. Two 1999 studies showed that it was essentially impossible for RF to spark a fire at a gas station. A 2002 oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico that was said to have been caused by a cellphone... this cause was later ruled out by experimental data, and static discharge was fingered as the likely culprit.
Good article.
So his estate sues the balloon company.
And wins.