Why are we advised to turn mobiles phones off at petrol stations?
what is the science exactly and if it is dangerous to use mobiles on forecourts why is is not enforced so many people use mobiles at service stations
thank you in advance
Answer:
Very interesting theories about radio waves, RF transmitters and all the other connotations but I can tell you it is much simpler than that.
Every mobile phone contains a battery and therefore if you drop it while leaving the car or whilst juggling the petrol pump
there is a big risk of the unit opening and the battery causing a spark. Simple as that I am afraid. Think how many times your phone has split open when it drops on a hard surface ?? Makes sense doesn't it ?
There is a miniscule chance that your mobile phone could start a fire at a petrol station.
It is extraordinarily unlikely, however.
Because they are supposed to ignite petrol fumes.
It isnt true anyway, I saw this myth busted on myth busters
prevention being better than cause
The waves of the phones cause interference with other machines e.g they may interfere with the other machines causing a spark which might ignite a fire. But the chances of this are very low. That's why it's not a hard rule. However, to be on the safe side, its better to turn it off.
Another theory was that they interfered with the electronics in the pump. The oil companies may have lost money - and that wouldn't do would it?
In case you do not know, there was an incident where a driver suffered burns and his car severely damaged when gasoline fumes ignited an explosion while he was talking on his mobile phone standing near the attendant who was pumping the gas. All the electronic devices in gas stations are protected with explosive containment devices, (intrinsically safe) while cell phones are not. READ YOUR HANDBOOK! Mobile phone makers Motorola, Ericsson, and Nokia, all print cautions in their user handbooks that warn against mobile phones in "gas stations, fuel storage sites, and chemical factories." Exxon has begun placing "warning stickers" at its gasoline stations. The threat mobile phones pose to gas stations and their users is primarily the result of their ability to produce sparks that can be generated by the high-powered battery inside the phone. Please pass this on.
Please choose a best answer
just do it , they dont print all of those signs for the sake of it .
There is an outside chance that the electromagmetic radiation from a mobile being used could induce a voltage in part of the filling station construction. This voltage could produce a spark if it shorted to earth, igniting any petrol fumes
One Word : BOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM.
The TV show MythBusters discredited the theory of mobile phones igniting the petrol vapors.
In reality they concluded that the petrol pump fires are associated with static electricity from people that get in and out of the car while filling up. They found that women are nearly 10 times more likely to get in and out while waiting. Their research also found that older people who get in and back out generally grab the door frame, thus grounding themselves.
As it turns out, younger women are more likely to be involved with petrol pump fires that any other group.
Below is a link to snopes.com that provides similar details.
Most people think it's to do with the chance of causing an explosion. some people have even heard of the urban legend which says this actually happened.
In fact it has never happened, it is a myth, an urban legend, with no basis in reality and the possibility of causing a spark enough to ignite petrol fumes is statistically unlikely - you have more chance of winning the lottery AND being struck by lightening AT THE SAME TIME.
Static electricity can cause sparks from your mobile in transmit mode like the old Citizens band radio's could although it is very very unlikely
You are more likely to create a spark from you to your vehicle we often get a belt from the door handle and I have never seen this sited as a danger in fuel stations
Probably because it would mean we had to stay in our car's and have the attendant serve you ( they could then call them (Service Stations )
It's not enforced because it's rubbish. There was, when the predominant technology was of the analogue variety, a tiny chance that the signal to or from the phone could spark vapour in the fuel tanks. Utter rubbish, and never proven.
Now that analogue has gone the way of the dodo and all recent phones in the UK are digital there's no chance whatsoever.
Of course, it is always likely that should the phone interfere with the pump registering the correct amounts the oil companies, with their 'tiny little' profits, they'd rather tell the public there's a risk of explosion rather than a chance the public would save money.
It's not unlike tranferring ammunition around a warship. We're told not to use mobile phones because the electrical signal can spark a round off and basically blow us all to bits.
Which people on board find quite amusing. Why? Because we transfer ammo from the upper deck down to the magazines by going past electrical systems carrying, in some cases, 440 volts.
Yes, Myth Busters and other sources say it's rubbish.
Much of what Myth Busters do is not based on good, sound scientific principles.
The facts of the matter are as follows.
A cell 'phone (a "mobile") is a radio transmitter/receiver.
The r.f. energy radiated from the transmitter will induce r.f. currents in any conductive objects within its field. (Not can induce, it WILL induce r.f. currents in them.)
These conductive objects can and will act as transmission-line transformers/antennas (look it up on Google - but it is probably beyond the understanding of most readers).
A transmission line can cause the most modest of currents to produce very large voltages. This is a fact. The antenna (aerial) of a transmitter powered by a low voltage battery can produce several thousands of volts, but that's a rather special subject outside the scope of this answer ...
.. but remember, your 12 volt car electrical system produces several thousands of volts which is applied to the spark plugs.
So, we have a radio transmitter.
Radio transmitters produce r.f. fields.
R.f. fields induce r.f. currents in surrounding conductive objects.
These r.f. currents can produce high voltages.
Any voltage, even low ones can cause sparks.
The risk of sparks caused by cell phones is small. Very small indeed.
However it is, nevertheless, a risk.
Your are told to switch them off at filling stations.
Do as you are damned well told.
I spoke to a fire officer about that at work and he said that a mobile can set off a psark which could ignite the petrol causing a fire
the latest research i saw said there was no risk but i have friends who work in petrol stations and they don't fancy the risk if that research was wrong!
i never use my mobile in the petrol station just in case. you start a fire in one of them places you would need to get about 3 miles away pretty quick! :o)
m x
When mobiles had Ariel's they caused a small spark so they asked you to turn them off,most phones don't have stick out Ariel's now.
'cos in certain conditions a spark even in your phone can set off an explosion. Is it worth the risk
Because mobile phones can blank petrol pump information.
I watched a Braniac program that answered this very question. They said that dropping it can create a spark in the battery, causing an explosion.
They don't want us ladies to start chatting on the phone & hold up the queues of cars instead of filling the car!
For the same reason that CB radios were banned at filling stations.
If held close to the pumps that give false readings and you get free petrol.
Companies don't want that do they.
LOL to all those who talk about sparks, how many sparks are coming out of your mobile or wireless router or any other aeriel?
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i have always found this strange as i know that in most petrol stations they hide a network aerial for mobile phones inside the pillars that support the canopy over the pumps for various mob tel companies and garages receive payment for this...still having having had corgi gas fitters at my house looking for gas leaks with a lit match(kicked out with a size ten) am i not surprised
Personally i don't think it makes any difference if you use it or not. It's just an excuse for petrol stations so they can stop people for talking and wasting time and costing them money.
But it could be true that the fumes and radiation let off by the handset could be dangerous.
It's interesting to speculate why if mobile phones could produce a spark to set off an explosion the very high temperatures reached by catalysts do not do so. After all they can ignite grass when parked on it.
OR
Why sparks produced by dynamos or starter motor or wind screen wiper or window lifts brushes do not do so.
There's a catch in this somewhere!
RoyS
When Hamster Hammond was doing Braniac they tried to explode a petrol soaked caravan by calling mobile phones placed inside it. They failed! There is a tiny possibility that a phone could ignite petrol vapour, but Hey! they let you start your engine at the pumps to drive off. When CB radio was popular it was said that the transmitters could interfere with the pump electronics, making them read less than the actual delivery. This is probably the "real" reason they are bothered.
Its mainly because the wireless info waves can cause sparks to the tanks resulting into a fire of the petrol station. Most people do not read waning signs at petrol and service stations so they don't know the cause of keeping a mobile on. So then they might cause a fire.
Because of urban lore, a belief that handset transmissions might set-up some sort of electro-static discharge that might ignite fuel in storage tanks, causing an explosion.
There is no engineering or physics basis for this premise, but the convincing thing is that there are exactly zero "documented" (key Word) occurrences of such a thing. (If mobile phones were genuinely capable of this, given the hundreds of millions of handsets in use, it would've happened many times all over the world, by now.)
Even so, many mobile handset makers still include fuel-related warnings in their user manuals, that proliferate and seemingly lend credibility to this myth.
My guess is we can thank the corporate attorneys, who dismiss scientiffic and statistical proof as inconsequential details, preferring instead to avert potential liability by warning consumers of any and all risks, real or imagined.
Perhaps someday all consumers of oxygen will file a class action against the legal profession, for all the trees squandered to publish 'warnings' that are complete and utter BS, all in the name of 'playing it safe'.
You are right.
There is a small charge or spark produced when a phone is answered.
According to the web, there have definately been recorded incidents of these charges causing fires in the USA and UK.
Best to leave ot in the car mate!
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