Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Cell Phone Fires at Gas Stations Tagged Another Urban Myth

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 15:44:04 -0500

As previously reported here:

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Cell Phone Fires at Gas Stations Tagged Another Urban Myth Unsubstantiated stories have
been circulating on the Internet for three years describing cell phones sparking fires at
gas stations. Both the Petroleum Equipment Institute, which documents every reported gas
station fire, and the wireless industry say the reports are the stuff of urban legend. "We
have not found a cell phone responsible for any fire since the beginning of mankind," said
a spokesman for the Petroleum Equipment Institute. Snopes.com, a Web site that debunks
urban legends, said that the claim that cell phone batteries could ignite gasoline fires
"seems specious since cellular phone batteries are the same voltage as automobile
batteries, but deliver far less current."

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Cell-Phone Fires: A Lot of Static
By Elisa Batista

Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,58188,00.html

02:00 AM Mar. 25, 2003 PT
An Indonesian man suffered severe burns on his face when his cell phone ignited a fire at
a gas station in 1999, according to an
e-mail message circulating on the Web. That same year, the message claims, an Australian
man exploded when his cell phone
rang near the gas pump.

In response to those incidents, the e-mail further alleges, Shell Oil recently issued a
warning that when a mobile phone rings it
can produce enough energy to trigger a small fire if the user is pumping gas while toting
the phone.
The message is nothing but an urban legend, say representatives from the wireless and
petroleum industries. But it's clearly one
with legs: It has made the rounds online for the past three years, according to
Snopes.com, a website dedicated to debunking
urban myths.

For its part, Shell denied that it ever issued any kind of warning against cell-phone use
in gas stations.
"This e-mail has been circulating on the Internet for some time now," said Shell
spokeswoman Stephanie Johnson. "We can't
vouch for the events it describes, or the source of the e-mail."

Travis Larson, a spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association
trade group, said he has received at
least one question about it every week for the last three years.

"It is in fact an urban legend," Larson said. "We have not come across a legitimate news
source that has reported that gasoline
or gas fumes are being ignited by a mobile phone."

Robert Renkes, a spokesman for the Petroleum Equipment Institute, said he has documented
every reported gas station fire for
the last several years. "We have not found a cell phone responsible for any fire since the
beginning of mankind," he said.
If neither industry has ever officially linked cell phones to gas station fires, why is
the urban legend so rampant?

Renkes said he noticed in the e-mail rumor's most recent incarnation a link drawn between
cell-phone use and static electricity.
Cell-phone use, he said, does not cause fires, but in rare circumstances a static
discharge can create a spark at the gas pump.
For example, Renkes has documented instances in which motorists get back in their cars
while refueling. When they get out of
the car to replace the nozzle, they discharge static electricity -- a potentially
dangerous combination in proximity to the gas tank.
Renkes said no link between cell-phone use and static discharge exists, however.

It's also possible that government-mandated warnings accompanying cell phones may have led
someone to craft the alarming
e-mail. Before it merged with Sony, for example, Ericsson included this message in the
user manual of its T66 cell phone: "Turn off your mobile phone when in any area with a
potentially explosive atmosphere. It is rare, but your mobile phone or its accessories
could generate sparks. Sparks in such areas could cause an explosion or fire resulting in
bodily injury or even death. Areas with a potentially explosive atmosphere are often, but
not always, clearly marked. They include fueling in areas such as petrol stations, below
decks on boats, fuel or chemical transfer or storage facilities"
Motorola and Nokia also include similar warnings in their user manuals. And Exxon gas
stations have even begun placing warning stickers about cell-phone use at the pump.

But some cell-phone makers say they are simply complying with a British law that mandates
that all battery-powered devices
carry such warnings. Nokia, for example, chose to include the warning in all of its
manuals worldwide, rather than rewrite the
manual for each individual country, said Keith Nowak, company spokesman.

Like all batteries that produce energy, cell-phone batteries could conceivably ignite an
electrical spark, although the chances are
so remote that it's hardly a risk, Nowak said.

Renkes said the manufacturers include the warning to "cover their butts for legal
reasons."

"It pretty much would never happen," Nowak said. "But the place where our warning comes
from is the U.K., where, basically,
all battery-operated devices -- whether it's a Walkman or a garage door opener, or
whatever -- must carry a warning."
And Snopes.com disputes even that slight possibility.

"The claim that the batteries used in a cellular phone can ignite gasoline seems specious,
since cellular phone batteries are the
same voltage as automobile batteries (12V DC) but deliver far less current," the website
stated. "Likewise, the claim that a
'cellular-phone ringer uses more than 100 volts for excitation' is a curious artifact of
the regular telephone era: Cellular phones
don't have ringers. They produce audio tones that simulate the sound of a ringing
telephone."

In other words, don't fret too much if you forget to turn off your cell phone the next
time you go to fill 'er up.

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