Posted By Michael Miller
I am not aware of any current policies on this matter. It may be helpful to approach petro-chemical industries, hospitals and petrol stations who will probably have 'no mobile phone policies' for obvious reasons. I am curious to know why you would want to ban these from your warehouse. I do realise that they can be a nusance and a distraction but unless there is some major hazard associated with your business, I can not understand the rational?

seems a bit harsh.

Mike

Posted By Shane Johnston
There have been numerous media reports of mobile phones being the cause of explosions at petrol stations over the past few years. However the bottom line is that there are NO substantiated cases that I could find of petrol being ignited by a mobile phone, there are however a number of documented urban legends. A man who was burned when a mobile phone sitting on a bumper rang and caused an explosion; a man who received burns to his face while talking on his phone as he was pumping fuel; and a man whose phone caused a fire in the pocket of his trousers while pumping fuel. As far as the GSM Association is aware none of the media stories has ever been traced to a real event. The CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) said "There is no evidence whatsoever that a mobile phone has ever caused ignition or explosion at a petrol station anywhere in the world”.

The notices displayed by petrol companies and the warnings given in Mobile phone user guides have encouraged speculation. Mobile phones have been proven to distract an individuals attention, and this is not something you want while decanting a flammable liquid, hence the warnings. In August 1999, the San Francisco Chronicle published an article in which a spokesman for Motorola stated that their warning was because of the remote possibility that the battery could dislodge and cause a spark, not because of radio-transmissions. However, this is also true of other battery-powered devices such as torches, Walkman, CD players, etc. and how many individuals have small torches on their car keys?

There is a miniscule, but real danger, in using a mobile phone while decanting petrol. The batteries that are used in the phone can deliver enough power to ignite petrol, diesel or liquefied petroleum vapour, and the ringer itself (usually a piezoelectric device) uses more than 100 volts for excitation. There is also a risk of the radio frequency signal inducing a current in any metal that may be nearby - a mobile phone emits a 5watt signal. So in the worst-case scenario of a fuel spill soaking an employee and then the employee’s phone ringing, a fire is theorectically possible.

It might be worth considering at this point that the probability of a fire being caused by static discharges (either from the vehicle itself or the individuals clothing) is a few orders of magnitude higher than the mobile-phone scenario. The Petroleum Equipment Institute says there are many fires that have been started by flame, cigarettes, or electrical sparks, but until recently, there had not been much documentation about fires started by sparks from static electricity. In a report on their website (www.pei.org), the institute says it has collected data regarding more than 150 fires that they believe have been started by static sparking. They recommend more research, but their conclusion is that most of the fires resulted from a static discharge from the motorist.

The risk of a mobile phone starting a fire is not significant, however, mobile phones (like many other pieces of electrical equipment) are not intrinsically safe. Therefore they should not be taken into “zoned” areas. Their use in other areas must be at the discretion of line management. Managers must take into consideration that the unexpected ring of a mobile may distract an individual involved in hazardous work.

As most of our employees work with lathes and other hazardous equipment, we have introduce a no-mobile phone policy.

Shane

Posted By Ken Taylor
If you are going to introduce a rule of this 'severity' and hope to be able to enforce it, you will need a strong case based upon health and safety reasons. People are more likely to obey a rule if it clearly makes sense or is clearly to their advantage. I have only gone as far as generally banning them for those in control of moving vehicles, working at height or operating plant or machinery and expect and understand task-specific bans for explosive atmospheres, handling chemicals and the like. Will management really follow up with disciplinary action for those who do not observe your mobile phone ban when they clearly do not see the reason to refrain from using them themselves?

Posted By Steve Sedgwick
Mark

In the event of a serious incident effective communications are paramount. We need to make a lot of internal and external calls, there are also many important calls coming in.

In these situations either the telephonist or the exchange become "swamped" and unable to handle the volume of calls.

Key people dealing with such incidents, in the early stages are rarely in their offices, so are not near their phones.

We should recognise that mobiles do have down sides to them but mobile phones are invaluable in any serious incident. They should be considered in any Emergency / Disaster Plan.

Steve

Posted By Steve Sedgwick
Andy

It is a very important H&S issue but HR should play a part in the discussions leading to a company policy.

People considering such a ban must consider the how important communications are when dealing with serious incidents.

I am emphasising this point because I have had the experience where mobile phones played a key role in post incident management.

Mobile phones can be invaluable, but they do ned to be controlled

Steve

Posted By Dave Wilson
What did we do before mobiles were a 'gucci' attachement?

Does an employer have the right to ban the use of 'personal' mobiles in the work place? Conversely does the employee have the right to use them during 'working hours for personal reasons?'

There must be a common ground where they are acceptable and in certain work areas where they are not, either on safety or security grounds!

Its like smoking at work, ban it and it goes underground, how you going to check that a person does not have the phone on silent? can't search them only the Police can do that!

We could of course lobby Parliament and get the workplace regs ammended so that the employer has to provide an area free for mobile phone users to go and use their phone so as not to contaminate the office environment for non-mobile users, claim for passive-radiation and depression coming up here! Oops got to go me mate has just texed me!!!

Posted By Paul Oliver
hi mark,

after having viewed some of the responses, i thought i would post another message. considering that this forum is open for "Safety Professionals" to discuss issues such as yours, i am quite appallled at some of the comments that have been made. what most people seem to missing, is that as part of any safety managment system you must have measures in place to reduce / eliminate risk and manage identifable hazards within the workplace. we are not here or employed to be company policemen / women, having rules and procedures in place means having the active participation of all the workforce (i do belive that HASWA mentions this somewhere!). you are right to tackle this subject in order to ensure you eliminate the hazard and reduce the level of risk by providing the right level of information aimed at shopfloor workers and employees alike.i would deem being called a luddite by another safety proffesional not very proactive or constructive at all.

Posted By Dave Wilson
Paul,

Remember mate that the a lot of people who ask questions and even contribute are not safety people as I have found out.

What you get here is an input from safety people but also non safety as well, ie the general public from throughout the Globe and some of the responses may be a 'personal opinion' and not based on Safety Reasoning.

Posted By Dave Wilson
Being a 'Them'you must be 'aving a bubble' all good organisations have good open channels of communication and consultation and agrement, any who don't quite frankly dont deserve to survive.