I heard a long time ago that a man was at a gas station and filling up gas for his car. Then he gets a phone call, answers it, then sparked off something to make the whole station explode. And now there are signs that say "Do not your phone while refilling your car with gas."

WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?

Done and busted, twice.

[quote]Yes, it's true.
You place yourself and those around in danger every time you use a cell phone.[/quote]

What, in starting a gas station fire? No, it's NOT true.
Are you talking about some OTHER health hazzard using cell phones?

The myth of cell phones causing a gas station to explode is laughably unlikely. It is easier to create nuclear fusion with common bleach.

Anecdotes from long before cell phones, however, seem plausible.

The stories are about filling or transfering flammables like gasoline in proximity to a transmitter, typicall on the order of several watts to several tens of kilowatts and having the flammable ignite, causing fire. Never heard of one causing an explosion, though it is certainly possible under the circumstances.

The culprit is RF eddy current and the physics of RF energy, where the voltage and current are out of phase.

Attempts to replicate such conditions fail almost 100% of the time. Most of the time, as in the Mythbuster experiments, the conditions are not replicated, guaranteeing failure. Mathematical models have had more success than physical experiments.

I know of several petrol stations close to AM broadcasters, one is 50,000 watts. The gas station is between two small signal lobes and 30 feet from the edge of the ground plane, with a wire pointing right at it. Most of the time, there is no problem but there have been a couple of "mysterious" fires while vehicles were filling up.

My conclusion, from all the evidence and from my own experience, is I that would consider the possibility and not take the risk. Microwatt transmitters like those in cell phones have been shownn to generate eddy currents that can emit sparks, or more accurately, produce arcs between conductors and across insulators, just as easily as high powered RF emitters. They generally cannot be seen. There is no way to tell whether or not it will happen, no guarantee. Me: I'm not going to lose my car to a freak accident, insurance or no.

Just remembered an explosion anecdote:

Basically it's this: Military aircraft fueling. Radar paints the aircraft, fire starts at fueling coupling then aircraft and fuel truck go up in a fireball.

That's about it...

At my AFB we were not allowed to key our two-way radio while at the base gas station. The reason is that when you key-up a two-way radio it closes a switch and there is the possibility of a spark being generated.

I would assume that there is a possibility of spark generation with some cell phones? The one thing they didn't try on the episode was finding a way to have the phone answer... But they could just take it into a dark room, remove the cover and see if they can detect any sparks during operation.

- Panther256

The problem with this is that there's TONS of different types of cell phones around, past & present.

I do agree with the show about static being a BIG hazard at gas stations, though.

Static is your greatest risk, not the cell phone. I am not aware of any documented cases where the cell phone actually caused a fire at a gas station. If I am mistaken, please enlighten me.

[quote]Static is your greatest risk, not the cell phone. I am not aware of any documented cases where the cell phone actually caused a fire at a gas station. If I am mistaken, please enlighten me.[/quote]

They stated on the show that there have been NO recorded cases of cell phones starting gas station fires....ever. Since cell phone have been around a LONG time, you would think, if the phone CAN start a fire, it would have happened by now.
The static on the other hand, is WELL documented and has been responsible for fires for years.

Thanks for enforcing my point. I didn't remember that particular bit from the show, but I couldn't find any credible sources that lent credence to the myth either.

ITS NOT ACTUALLY THE CELL PHONE. THEY DID THIS AND THEY PROVED IT WAS STATIC GOING FROM YOUR BODY TO THE CAR THAT LIGHTS THE GASOLINE, NOT YOUR CELL PHONE

What about this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYOpel0VjJE

And more, i think what proper dipole or Hertz resonator (hoop with gap) may produce spark out of cellphone transmitting wattage.

Wavelength of 1800MHz is about 16.6cm (6.53 inches), so the right resonator may be a handbag metal frame or hair hoop, both are likely to be very close to phone then it answers or negotiates with base.

quote:

Originally posted by panther256:
At my AFB we were not allowed to key our two-way radio while at the base gas station. The reason is that when you key-up a two-way radio it closes a switch and there is the possibility of a spark being generated.

I would assume that there is a possibility of spark generation with some cell phones? The one thing they didn't try on the episode was finding a way to have the phone answer... But they could just take it into a dark room, remove the cover and see if they can detect any sparks during operation.

- Panther256

I can give a definate answer to this... please ensure the Myth team see this!

the reason there are signs in Petrol stations (gas stations as you call them, i'm in the UK) saying cell phones "must be switched off" stems from the old days of analogue phones. It's not to do with the switch creating a spark etc, but because analogue radio waves (not just cell-phones but CB radio's as well) can wipe off the information between the cashier & the pump, so that the signal will void the cost & ammount appearing on the terminal.

So if this myth is revisted, please investigate. I know this does happen as one time i was in a petrol station years ago & using a CB, only to discover the computer system went down momentarily when i spoke with a fellow CBer. Also one time i was in a petrol station & at the pump next to me was a Taxi talking on his radio to his base.. i went to pay for the fuel & the pump showed "00.00", even though i had filled the tank on my motorcycle. Thankfully i was honest & paid them for the fuel.

Digital Cell-phones shouldn't affect it, but they "may"

Mythbusters see this!!!
But I also have an alternate answer to the whole mess up signals thing.My brother was walking home from work just last night and he saw a guy talking on his phone and suddenly a fire lit on him so i think that its not just a phone igniting a fire from being answered or the signals being disrupted but its a 1 in a million chance but also plausible.And i also use to live in the uk and i agree about the signals being dirupted but thats not the only reason to those signs!

When the phone was called it just rang and rang and was never answered. I think the results to this experiment might be different if the cell phone was answered.

Hi all

About MythBusters's episode "Celular and Gasoline". An explosion is possible !!

See below a video about a accident in Sao Paulo - BRAZIL. A GAS Station's employee check the gasoline's truck when He tried to answare a cell call, the truck explode !!

The employee needs go to hospital wiht her skin burned. He's alive but with some health problems...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwxLFauVnTU

Wow you must have super vision. The video is so grainy that you really can't see what the person really has.

quote:

Originally posted by mnmthbusterfan:
Wow you must have super vision. The video is so grainy that you really can't see what the person really has.

I´m sorry disappoint you. I have no super vision !! I just live in Sao Paulo and I read all notices about this accident. But, you a skeptic guy... You can tranlate the pages from portuguese (here the notices from a Brazilian Agency:

http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/SaoPaulo/0,,MUL188894-5605,00.html

PS: This Gas Station´s employee died 3 days after the accident... unfortunelly. (I gave a wrong information in my first post)

I would worry more about snipers at the gas station than a cell phone.

quote:

Originally posted by MarcoR:
Hi all

About MythBusters's episode "Celular and Gasoline". An explosion is possible !!

See below a video about a accident in Sao Paulo - BRAZIL. A GAS Station's employee check the gasoline's truck when He tried to answare a cell call, the truck explode !!

The employee needs go to hospital wiht her skin burned. He's alive but with some health problems...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwxLFauVnTU

News reporters get things wrong all the time.

If you watch the vid, you can't tell what the other guy is doing. You can see the guy on top of the tank take something out of his pocket, look in the tank, he drops the object in the tank, takes another look and starts to move back when the flames erupt.

You may also note that it looks like something on the back of the tanker hit the awning prior to the guy getting on top.

So, possible causes include what ever the other guy was doing, the guy on the top of the tank dropping something into a tank, which if "empty" is still full of volatile fumes and very susceptable to sparks from an electrical device breaking open or metal object sparking against the metal of the tank, or it could be related to what looked like an object being broken off the back of the truck.

I would treat anything stated by the newspapers regarding this incident with skepticism.