Cell Phones & fuel pumps

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nhscannerman

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OK did anyone get the story some time back about how some incidents happened because of the use of cell phones near pumps? According to a research a few years back, it was stated that because of the phone acts like a 2 way radio between receiving & transmitting the frequencies in which can cause a fire. One incident was how one guy caught on fire due to the transmission or spark of the phone. Also because of the improper grounding. Also now they had passed a new Federal Law that all cell phones are to be turned off during the refueling process.
 

mdulrich

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OK did anyone get the story some time back about how some incidents happened because of the use of cell phones near pumps? According to a research a few years back, it was stated that because of the phone acts like a 2 way radio between receiving & transmitting the frequencies in which can cause a fire. One incident was how one guy caught on fire due to the transmission or spark of the phone. Also because of the improper grounding. Also now they had passed a new Federal Law that all cell phones are to be turned off during the refueling process.

snopes.com: Cell Phone Use at Gas Pump

What federal law?

Mike
 
N

N_Jay

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Just one more in the long list of "better safe than sorry" unthinking.

A sign of the dumbing down of our society.
 

fineshot1

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Total Bunk Subject

This is just another MYTH about cell phones.

How does one explain the fact that many service stations that pump gas
also have two way radio antennas for the tow trucks they dispatch. These
two way radios transmit at far higher power levels than any cell phone and
also another fact than cell phone towers themselves are sometimes close
to fuel pumping stations. These cell phone towers have many transmitters
that have much higher power levels than the cell phone itself.

This reminds me of the Hospitals ban on using cell phones inside the
hospital building when in fact there are about a dozen antennas on top
of the hospital building itself for paging and various other services.

I can see it now - some political genius is going to propose a ban on all
towers near gas stations. What a LOAD of BUNK.
 
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N_Jay

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. . . .
This reminds me of the Hospitals ban on using cell phones inside the
hospital building when in fact there are about a dozen antennas on top
of the hospital building itself for paging and various other services.
. . .

This is a different issue (Hopefully for a different thread)
 

kma371

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Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Myth busters did an episode on this.

Myth was BUSTED!
 
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N_Jay

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Uh Oh - did I give you another idea? :)

Just that the issue of a even small signals in close proximity to very sensitive electronic equipment is VERY different than the issue of a cell phone generating some type of ignition source for gasoline vapors.
 

SCPD

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There are warnings on gas pumps to not use a cell-phone. Also warnings about static around gas pumps. I saw a video a few months back, a guy on the cell, in the car, while the pump is running. He gets out of the car and poof, suddenly there is a flash fire and his car is engulfed.

I guess all those warnings on gas pumps, that nobody ever bothers to read, are just fluff and poppycock, huh?
 
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N_Jay

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There are warnings on gas pumps to not use a cell-phone. Also warnings about static around gas pumps. I saw a video a few months back, a guy on the cell, in the car, while the pump is running. He gets out of the car and poof, suddenly there is a flash fire and his car is engulfed.

I guess all those warnings on gas pumps, that nobody ever bothers to read, are just fluff and poppycock, huh?

All investigations have pointed to static as the cause.
Some have even substantiated static as the cause.
None I have ever heard of have substantiated a cell phone as even a likely cause.

The entire history of the Cell Phone warning is a lesson in unthinking "better safe than sorry" idiocy.
 

SCPD

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The entire history of the Cell Phone warning is a lesson in unthinking "better safe than sorry" idiocy.

I would agree, be that as it may though, the warning stickers do exist. Fear not though, for I'm sure the experts here will provide us with a means to remove said warning labels, and what we can and cannot believe to be true. LOL
 
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N_Jay

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I would agree, be that as it may though, the warning stickers do exist. Fear not though, for I'm sure the experts here will provide us with a means to remove said warning labels, and what we can and cannot believe to be true. LOL

I am not sure what you are trying to say?

Because the warning stickers exist, there must be a risk??
or,
Because the warning stickers exist, there is no reason to discuss that it is a false risk??
 

fineshot1

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Just that the issue of a even small signals in close proximity to very sensitive electronic equipment is VERY different than the issue of a cell phone generating some type of ignition source for gasoline vapors.

N_Jay - you obviously misunderstood me.

I was not saying that both issues were the same. I was saying or meant to say that
the assumptions about cell phones of each issue were similar.
 
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N_Jay

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N_Jay - you obviously misunderstood me.

I was not saying that both issues were the same. I was saying or meant to say that
the assumptions about cell phones of each issue were similar.

I understood what you were saying, I just disagree. (Separate from my questioning what Dak48 meant)

I am saying that they are not very similar.

One has to do with radio signal impacting a piece of electrical equipment that is (or may be) measuring very small electrical impulses from the human body.

The other has to do with a cellular phone some how creating an ignition point for gasoline vapors.

The assumption that an issue could exist and the reasonableness of those assumptions are VERY different.
 
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fineshot1

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I understood what you were saying, I just disagree. (Separate from my questioning what Dak48 meant)

I am saying that they are not very similar.

One has to do with radio signal impacting a piece of electrical equipment that is (or may be) measuring very small electrical impulses from the human body.

The other has to do with a cellular phone some how creating an ignition point for gasoline vapors.

The assumption that an issue could exist and the reasonableness of those assumptions are VERY different.

OK - I give up. You still did not get my meaning but I won't waste my efforts anymore.
 

eaf1956

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Static Electricity

There are warnings on gas pumps to not use a cell-phone. Also warnings about static around gas pumps. I saw a video a few months back, a guy on the cell, in the car, while the pump is running. He gets out of the car and poof, suddenly there is a flash fire and his car is engulfed.

I guess all those warnings on gas pumps, that nobody ever bothers to read, are just fluff and poppycock, huh?

More likely Static buildup than his cell phone. Maybe they should pass a law banning STATIC electricity building up on stuff.
 
N

N_Jay

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OK - I give up. You still did not get my meaning but I won't waste my efforts anymore.

Sorry if I am, missing something.

I am not trying to be dense, but I don't see where you have expanded on or clarified anything you wrote, so it is a little hard to figure out exactly where I am missing your point.

Are you sure you not missing my point; that I get your point, but disagree with it?
 

mdulrich

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I guess all those warnings on gas pumps, that nobody ever bothers to read, are just fluff and poppycock, huh?

They are there just like the warning label on sun shades for cars state to not drive with the shade in place and the warning statement for irons tell you not to iron clothes while wearing them, etc. Because we have lawyers in this country who will file a lawsuit for every stupid thing that people do and every freak accident that occurs when there isn't a warning. With the number of cellphones in use around gas pumps if this was a legit issue there would be fires all over the place.

Mike
 

fmon

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This could be similar to Hazards of Electromagnetic Radiation to Ordnance (HERO).

Quoted from aviation ordnance manual
HERO is a condition set by all military during use of electrically initiated ordnance, i.e., cartridges and cartridge actuated devices (CAD), 20-mm ammo and so forth. The ordnance electroexplosive devices (EEDs) may be accidentally initiated or their performance degraded by exposure to radiofrequency (RF) environments.
 
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