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Can your cell phone ignite a gas pump?
• Better safe than sorry say manufacturers, gas stations and the NFPA
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Friday,
September 18, 2009
Avid cell phone users call it an urban legend. Slopes.com has dispelled the possibility of cell phones igniting gas pumps and the Petroleum Equipment Institute states that they have never been able to document a single gas pump fire caused by a cell phone.
So we individually need to decide if the guy in Coconut Creek spontaneously combusted at the BP station while reaching for his ringing cell phone or, if we’re a little smarter than that, can recognize the dangers of cell phone use at the pump.
The Petroleum Equipment Institute has found more than 150 refueling fires that appear to be caused by a discharge of static electricity, which is what most likely happened to Eden Sherwood at the BP station at Hillsboro and 39th Avenue - a static discharge orginating from him, his cell phone or his front seat, as he swept-up the phone in an effort to answer it.
Cell phone companies such as Motorola post warnings in their brochures cautioning against the use of cell phones in potentially explosive atmospheres and gasoline companies such as Shell and others have signs posted at pumps (although downplayed in recent years) forbidding the use of cell phones (You’ll find most of these signs posted in cold weather states where the air is dryer and static electricity thrives).
Now, although the chances of igniting dangerous gasoline vapors while your cell phone is ringing, answering or calling are slim to none, ask yourself: “Why take the chance?” What could be so important that you would risk your personal safety – and the safety of others – to use your cell phone while pumping gas?
According to the National Fire Protection Association, you're not supposed to use electronic materials at gas pumps, because the manufacturers of these products suggest you don’t. Click on the NFPA link and avail yourself to the Association’s complete list of safety tips while pumping gas.
The rest is up to you. The other day a guy pulled up on his motorcycle to gas-up at the Chevron station on Margate Boulevard and threw a lit cigarette on the ground as I was pumping gas. He disregarded a polite comment directed at him, thinking I was the foolish one…
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