It's an urban myth that won't go away: mobile phones and petrol are an explosive combination.
The myth, which surfaced in the 1990s, is perpetuated through warning signs at almost every service station in the country, but most experts agree mobile phones don't pose a safety risk at the petrol pump.
"It's not something that is a reality," the chief executive of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association, Chris Althaus, said. "It's something that came forward in the early '90s and has been the subject of a bit of urban mythology."
But Mr Althaus said the association still backed the ban on using a mobile phone at petrol stations.
"It's incredibly important that people are safe when they are filling their cars up with petrol, so we're happy to support the idea that you don't use a phone while you're doing that,'' he said. ''But it's not on the basis that the device could somehow lead to a spark and ignition. That's never been known to happen, and the physics would suggest that it's nigh on impossible."
Yet petrol retailers continue to hold on to the myth. One of Australia's leading petrol retailers, Woolworths Petrol, carries this warning on its website: "Mobile phones are potentially hazardous when used at a petrol station. Dropping a mobile phone, or turning a mobile phone on or off may cause a spark, which can ignite petrol vapours."
The chief executive of the Service Station Association, Ron Bowden, said mobiles would continue to be banned from forecourts.
"There's a very, very faint chance that there could be a spark using a mobile phone. There have been no reports anywhere in the world of a mobile phone actually starting a fire or an explosion, but we'd say, 'Be safe and don't use it'.''
The celebrity scientist Karl Kruszelnicki said the myth could be traced back to an email sent to a Shell oil company office in Jamaica. The email gained credibility when it was passed on by a Shell employee.
Dr Kruszelnicki said the forecourt warnings were more about service station owners "covering their arses from a legal point of view".
Now I know that there is no real prove to show that mobile phones may cause spark and explosion in petrol station...Now we can pick up call or sms with less worry...anyway, precaution is better than cure...we must not do it so frequently unless there is emergencies...There is no prove to say it is 100% safe too....So, I think petrol stations are taking the right action as well....
ReplyDeleteWow.. Interesting clarification of the myth.
ReplyDeleteYeah.. Even though there is only 0.0001 % possibilities that mobile phone may spark an explosion, we still have to be careful. Who knows the 0.0001% causes horrendous death case?
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