Is Smoking While Pumping Gas a Real Explosion Risk?

[BobG]

What's wrong with cell phones?

Did you know there has never in the history of cell phones been a gas station fire caused by a cell phone? Never. Not one. You're quoting an urban legend.

The Mythbusters did their best to try and make one blow up. They put in in a small box saturated with gasoline fumes, and if I recall correctly, even removed the cover from the phone, but still couldn't make it blow.

I'm sure glad. Having replaced a fuel pump, I'd never drive again if they managed to make gasoline explode with a cell phone.

And the heck with all the written literature. Right after you've successfully replaced your first fuel pump, you have to do a serious mental check before you turn the ignition key to see how well your repair job went. When you insert your new fuel pump and all of those electrical wires into your gas tank, you definitely have the feeling you've just created a bomb. It's a lot easier to start your car when you don't know what's sitting inside your fuel tank.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

As a kid, I freaked when I saw my cousin shooting matches into a barrel of diesel. How was I to know the stuff wouldn't light? That one can really throw a person.

 

[petm1]

What's wrong with cell phones?

Cell phones are a distraction and they are not rated to be used within a flammable atmosphere.

 

[BobG]

Back in the old days before people knew anything about child safety, my mom used to leave us kids sitting in the car while she ran inside to pick up a few things. So, naturally, as soon as I was tall enough to reach the gas pedal, I could finally mash the gas pedal repeatedly while pretending to drive.

Pump enough gas into your cylinders and you can't ignite it even if you repeatedly light a spark directly in the cylinder.

 

[Danger]

Of course with my luck, my static cling will blow up the entire station.

I'm pretty sure that your static cling has blown up more than a couple of things, but a gas station might be out of even your league.

 

[Evo]

What's wrong with cell phones?

Did you know there has never in the history of cell phones been a gas station fire caused by a cell phone? Never. Not one. You're quoting an urban legend.

The Mythbusters did their best to try and make one blow up. They put in in a small box saturated with gasoline fumes, and if I recall correctly, even removed the cover from the phone, but still couldn't make it blow.

They can set off certain flammable gases. In certain factories, customers can only uuse a certain type of certified cell phone, they cost $2,300-$3,200 a piece.

 

[Borek]

They can set off certain flammable gases. In certain factories, customers can only uuse a certain type of certified cell phone, they cost $2,300-$3,200 a piece.

I would love to see something more on the subject.

What I mean is that I fail to see possible problems with correctly working cell phone - amount of energy it emits and the way the energy is emitted (wavelength) should be not a problem. So I doubt it is a matter of setting off gases by the emission, more like phone has to be certified so that in no circumstances it can get hot due to internal short circuit or something.

 

[BobG]

They can set off certain flammable gases. In certain factories, customers can only uuse a certain type of certified cell phone, they cost $2,300-$3,200 a piece.

That could mean any number of things if the gas isn't known. I guess some gases could be extremely flammable (hydrogen or coal dust, for example).

Cell phones could conceivably ignite natural gas (which is mostly methane) if conditions were just right, but then, so could most of your household appliances, so you wouldn't be making yourself any safer by not using a cell phone in your own house. In most situations, natural gas is safer than gasoline, since natural gas rises and dissipates - it's only the situations where it gets trapped somewhere that it becomes dangerous.

In that sense, it's more dangerous to smoke, talk on your phone (whether cell phone or wall phone), turn on your TV or radio, turn on your lights, or walk around on your carpet in wool socks than it is to use a cell phone in a gas station, since the risk of gases accumulating inside a building are greater than the risks of them accumulating in the open air. (Admittedly, you'd have to have a stuffed up nose not to notice that natural gas was leaking and possibly accumulating in your house, since they add a foul smelling odor to the natural gas that's pumped into your home).

A cell phone just isn't going to ignite gasoline at a gas station: Cell phone usage at gas stations

 

[Evo]

I would love to see something more on the subject.

What I mean is that I fail to see possible problems with correctly working cell phone - amount of energy it emits and the way the energy is emitted (wavelength) should be not a problem. So I doubt it is a matter of setting off gases by the emission, more like phone has to be certified so that in no circumstances it can get hot due to internal short circuit or something.

Motorola has a special "Intrinsically Safe" IS model. The Motorola IS is protected against releasing electrical or thermal energy that may ignite fuel or light a fire or explosion. It's a push-to-talk phone that is safe to use in hazardous areas with flammable gasses.

Intrinsically safe means a device is safe to use in hazardous areas that may contain fuel in the atmosphere, such as flammable gasses or vapors, or combustible dust.

http://www.phonescoop.com/glossary/term.php?gid=221

 

[Borek]

That just confirms what I suspect - it is not GSM technology that puts you at risk, but good old problems that may happen with any electrical device.

 

[BobG]

I would love to see something more on the subject.

What I mean is that I fail to see possible problems with correctly working cell phone - amount of energy it emits and the way the energy is emitted (wavelength) should be not a problem. So I doubt it is a matter of setting off gases by the emission, more like phone has to be certified so that in no circumstances it can get hot due to internal short circuit or something.

http://www.slashgear.com/sprint-motorola-i365is-intrinsically-safe-rugged-cellphone-0633242/

SAFETY FIRST:

Intrinsically Safe2: The i365IS offers a protection technique for safe operation of electronic equipment in explosive atmospheres, when used with IS battery and accessories.
Bundled Advanced Features (AFU)
Emergency Group Call – Takes priority over all other phone activities and makes a special emergency tone in the phones receiving the call. In an emergency, reach everyone in your group instantly.
Multi-Simultaneous Talk-Group – Listen to up to four talk groups at a time. Don’t miss any important details or safety information.
Isolated Site Operation – Allows user to continue to make and receive group calls on the hub last used, even if the connection is lost. Ensures that no one is left behind.
Status Messages – Send call alerts that include predefined text messages to get right to the point.
Ultra-Rugged Design: The i365IS is a rugged and durable monolith handset certified for military specification requirements including humidity, blowing rain, dust, shock and vibration.

2 Intrinsic safety (IS) is a protection technique for safe operation of electronic equipment in explosive atmospheres. The theory behind intrinsic safety is to ensure that the available electrical and thermal energy in the system is always low enough that ignition of the hazardous atmosphere cannot occur. This is achieved by ensuring that only low voltages enter the hazardous area, and that all electric supply and signal wires are protected by zener safety barriers.

Okay, actually, at those prices, I'd still like to see more on the subject. You'd hope they would have some sort of over voltage protection on all of their phones, or at least the circuits that can be plugged in or have other things plugged into them. I guess the ruggedness of the protection could vary, and the certification is certainly a scary process (not so much for production, but there's not many students willing to test their overvoltage and overcurrent protection the night before they had to demonstrate the electronic device they designed - what if it fails testing?).

I do have a hard time seeing how that IS rating makes the phone worth over 2 grand just based on the few details given.

 

[Evo]

http://www.slashgear.com/sprint-motorola-i365is-intrinsically-safe-rugged-cellphone-0633242/




Okay, actually, at those prices, I'd still like to see more on the subject. You'd hope they would have some sort of over voltage protection on all of their phones, or at least the circuits that can be plugged in or have other things plugged into them. I guess the ruggedness of the protection could vary, and the certification is certainly a scary process (not so much for production, but there's not many students willing to test their overvoltage and overcurrent protection the night before they had to demonstrate the electronic device they designed - what if it fails testing?).

I do have a hard time seeing how that IS rating makes the phone worth over 2 grand just based on the few details given.

The I365IS is a newer much cheaper phone, I don't have the list of specs on the $2,000 ones right now. I have clients that have to have those phones at their plants.

The excuse for the high cost is that they are specially built for a niche market, which drives up the cost.

 

[GeorginaS]

Yep, young mothers, especially when talking with their husbands refusing to help with kids/shopping/laundry, tend to blow up quite often.

But I have never seen one exploding into flames. More like tears, and that puts fire out.