Posted By B.Gee Are there any similar recorded incidents in the UK? A U.S. Company recently issued a warning after three incidents in which mobile phones (cell phones) ignited fumes during fueling operations. In the first case, the phone was placed on the car's trunk lid during fueling; it rang and the ensuing fire destroyed the car and the gasoline pump. In the second, an individual suffered severe burns to their face when fumes ignited as they answered a call while refueling their car. And in the third, an individual suffered burns to the thigh and groin as fumes ignited when the phone, which was in their pocket, rang while they were fueling their car. 1) Out of 150 cases, almost all of them were women. 2) Almost all cases involved the person getting back in their vehicle while the nozzle was still pumping gas. When finished, they went back to pull the nozzle out and the fire started, as a result of static. 3) Most had on rubber-soled shoes. 4) Most men never get back in their vehicle until completely finished. This is why they are seldom involved in these types of fires. 5) Don't ever use cell phones when pumping gas 6) It is the vapors that come out of the gas that cause the fire, when connected with static charges. 7) There were 29 fires where the vehicle was re-entered and the nozzle was touched during refueling from a variety of makes and models. Some resulted in extensive damage to the vehicle, to the station, and to the customer. 8) Seventeen fires occurred before, during or immediately after the gas cap was removed and before fueling began.

Posted By John Allen http://www.snopes.com/autos/hazards/gasvapor.asp

Posted By Dave Wilson About 9 years ago with the old brick type phone we had two incidents of a mobile igniting something. First a chap threw his phone and his metal chain ID onto the car seat and this crossed the battery connections and set fire to his car seat. Second same thing whera lady did the same thing in her brief case. we went across to plastic chains after this

Posted By Jay Joshi There was a Technical Seminar in May 2003 on ‘Can mobile phone communications ignite petroleum vapour?" --press release at:- http://www.energyinst.or...k/content/files/mr11.doc Some extracts from the full proceedings includes:- (Published May 2003 by the Institute of Petroleum -available from Portland Customer Services) Attendees were invited to participate in an open discussion. The following key points were noted: • Mobile phone handsets transmit semi randomly to a nearby base station in order to make location updates. Depending on network configuration the updates may be approximately every 5 minutes. • This allows the network to correctly route any incoming calls. Turning off the phone also causes it to send a signal to the base station to deregister. Transmissions are very short, in region of 100 milliseconds, and there is a limit to the number of transmissions that any one base station can receive at any given time. It is therefore unlikely that any ‘cumulative effect’ could be caused by such transmissions even if there were many handsets in the vicinity of a forecourt at the same time. • The ‘flying mode’ available for certain models of phone disables the radio parts of the phone, but enables access to other features, e.g. organiser. • The only National Standard comparable to BS 6656 for radio frequency ignition risks is a German one which was fully consulted in the preparation of the latest edition of the British Standard. • Transmissions from a base station to many mobile phones in use on a forecourt do not cause a proportional increase in power levels as the summing factor is the square root of the number of mobiles. • There are no regulatory restrictions on the use of mobile phones on forecourts in the US. Petroleum companies are able to choose whether or not to implement their own restrictions. • The present regulation on the use of mobile phones on forecourts in the UK was based on tests that BASEEFA conducted on domestic batteries (thought to be 17-18 years ago) which proved that sparks could be generated.

Posted By Frank Hallett Sorry for the disjointed responses folks - distracted by important business - coffee machine playing up! Just to put the petrol station thing into perspective - a substantial number of UK petrol stations have mobile phone repeater stations on the premises! Normally disguised as the petrol company logo/ prices sign. How many of you have been accused of presenting an explosive threat from the below? Any vehicle with a battery and alternator [or generator for older vehicles] will be producing unenclosed sparks throughout the time that the engine is running - how many of you push your car into & out of the petrol station? In damp weather, any vehicle with a spark ignition system will be capable of producing measurable spark tracking whilst the engine is running - see above. Frank Hallett

Posted By Jonathan Sandler CMIOSH Frank, FYI Stoke NHS now allow mobile phones to be used inside their hospitals, had link but lost it. The phones are not allowed to be used within ICU. regards

Posted By Daniel Stonehouse This is getting off the point a bit but woollen jumpers are a known sourse of static - i saw a film once of a lady in a woollen jumper filling up in the USA - she leaned against the car and the fumes were ignited. No phone in site. Moral of the story - do not allow sheep in petrol stations.

Posted By Clive Cooper We had a case this week where someone was wiping down a fibreglass surface with a solvent degreaser on a rag. There was a static discharge, and the rag burst into flames. Fortunately, the user was not injured, but the powder from the extinguisher took an age to clean up!

Posted By Frank Hallett Many thanks for the additional info Jim; very helpful. It alo reinforces an opinion that I had but couldn't substantiate. Frank Hallett

Posted By Pierre de Carteret Having seen quite a few 'studies' on the subject I believe we should allow mobiles but ban nylon track suits from forecourts!! I have a short clip of a static induced fire from America if anybody wants a copy. Roll on solar powered vehicles...

Posted By Bill Parkinson I recall a report from a Fire Officer in the south of the country where mobile phones were implicated in some fires on station forecourts. There was the thought that a person with the phone in their pocket stood next to the filler cap is in a potential flammable atmosphere where the fuel tank is vented via the filler cap. Same report gave 4 instances of explosions in the US linked to mobile phones in pockets. There was also a concern that the electromagnetic field may interfere with the pump meaning you get more petrol for your money !! As for the use within a hospital the blanket ban has been lifted to an extent by the MHRA but there are still instances which have occurred under testing where equipment has been affected by the EMF. These areas include Cardiology, Intensive care and neo-natal intensive care (plus some others) for this reason we operate a ban in these areas but allow phones to be used in designated areas (which are marked as such). Also would not advise people to use one nearto a MRI scanner etc. !! There are still some trusts operating blanket bans but these are more to do with the use of camera phones and the breaches of confidentialty which may occur.