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10 responses so far ↓

• 1 Capt. Jack // Mar 7, 2008 at 3:33 am

  Cellphone don’t cause fires. Thats an Urban Legend! Unless he dropped it in the tank and it shorted out. Notice he moves away before it explodes. He saw the fire before it exited out the lid. Hence something dropped in and caused the ignition and he backed of just as the flames exited the port.

• 2 John Murphy // Mar 7, 2008 at 10:05 am

  “Cellphone don’t cause fires.” HA.. go get a job on a product tanker and see how long you last with your cell phone Jack.

• 3 Capt. Jack // Mar 9, 2008 at 3:54 am

  Ok John Murphy. I willing to bet you believe the Urban Legend of the moon landing was faked. With a powerful enough laser I can show anyone that someone placed a reflector on the moon by hand. As for the cellphone urban legend read these pages:

  http://www.snopes.com/autos/hazards/gasvapor.asp
  http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/2604/
  http://televizzle.org/2006/09/15/cell_phone_destruction_silicone_breasts_cd-rom_shattering.php
  http://www.engadget.com/2004/05/18/cellphones-do-not-start-gas-station-fires/

  Any question?

• 4 Capt. Jack // Mar 9, 2008 at 4:14 am

  As for the cellphone urban legend. Don’t just take my word for it. Do your own research. I recommend anyone to use Google search and type in “Is using a cell phone at a gas station dangerous? “. I would have included links but this site does not allow html linking. You should find many links referring to what I stated earlier. Even the FCC makes a note of this legend.

  If you watch the video frame by frame you will see the attendant move an object from his left hand to his right hand. The next frame he steps back with no object in either hand. My guess is (if it was a cellphone) it fell into the tank and shorted out, causing ignition. He sees this and moves out of the way just before the flames exit out the lid.

  Has anyone found out exactly what he had in his hand? And what was full investigation report?

• 5 John Murphy // Mar 9, 2008 at 10:03 am

  The reason cell phone causing explosions at gas stations is an urban legend is because of vapor recovery systems inside the pump prevent the emission of vapor.

  An open tank that has been agitated by the vehicle moving is likely to be emitting enough vapor to cause an explosion.

  I have to say you’re probably right that THIS incident was caused by the phone dropping into the tank -a sure fire way to cause an explosion- it is still possible -if unlikely- that a phone in your hand will cause the explosion.

  Bottom line is when working around gas you should always use intrinsically safe equipment. This would not have happened if the attendant used a Pelican light even if he dropped the danm thing into the tank.

• 6 John Murphy // Mar 9, 2008 at 10:08 am

  Battery powered equipment such as mobile phones, pagers, and cameras represent a potential ignition source.

  Shell takes the safety of its customers and retail staff very seriously. For this reason, although the risk associated with mobile phone use at retail sites is very low, Shell was the first in the oil industry in Malaysia to put up notices at pump islands to request motorists to switch OFF their mobile phones when refuelling at the station.

  http://www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId=my-en&FC1=&FC2=&FC4=&FC5=&FC3=/my-en/html/iwgen/news_and_library/hse/2002/mobilephones_011611415.html

  I don’t think they’d admit to the problem if it wasn’t a possibility.

• 7 RKS // Mar 27, 2008 at 11:45 am

  “Concern about cellphone safety at gas stations
  arose from anecdotal reports circulated on the internet and by the media.” cite: “Cell Phones Pose No Gas Station Hazard”, IEEE Spectrum Magazine, p6, dated April, 2004

  Also see 2007 IEEE PCIC Paper Abstract, “Additional testing and analysis of the high risk mobile phone components indicated a very low probability of ignition even under ideal conditions. A Monte Carlo simulation of the probability model estimated the odds of a mobile phone causing a fire or explosion in a Category 3 -Zone 2 Explosive Gas Atmosphere as being 1.16E-06; or one in a million”

  see http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4353999&isnumber=4353979

• 8 Capt. Jack // Mar 27, 2008 at 11:25 pm

  Thank you RKS! Real science at work here. I was hoping someone would find a report that was better than my anecdotal links. That IEEE PCIC paper should put the whole subject to bed.

• 9 rao // Jun 21, 2008 at 1:03 am

  A small equipment working on button cells housed in sheet metal box is located inside the cabin of a tank truck for transportation of petrol - Is it equipment intrinsically safe? Any hazards invilved?

• 10 dominique // Jun 26, 2008 at 1:46 am

  Hi from France,

  I’m looking for intrinsically safe cellphone

  If you have some solution, i’ll be very happy to get some informations.

  Many thanks

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