tacr2man
Well-Known Member
Sorry to break up the party by bringing back the topic, but the issue with mobiles on forecourts is nothing whatever to do with signals interfering with kit. It is because when you turn phones on and off, and when you receive texts or calls, it can sometimes be accompanied by small electrical sparks. As was mentioned earlier, sparks and petroleum gas vapours mix rather too well for comfort! It' s all related to the upper and lower explosive limits of the substance in air, expressed as a percentage, which for petrol are quite far apart, meaning that there is a wide range of vapour concentrations of petrol that will explode given the TINIEST ignition source. While this is unlikely to be in the atmosphere on the forecourt, it is very likely around your filler cap while you are pouring highly flammable liquid into the tube.
I have seen a video of a tanker driver use the torch on his mobile, which produces the same size spark as receiving a text, to do a visual check of the level in his tanker, which immediately exploded. It' s called a BLEVE. check them out.
And for those of you that don't believe health & safety is important in the workplace, tell that to the families of those killed on Piper Alpha, or Deepwater Horizon, or the 200+ people who didn' t come home from work last year in the UK!
Happy New Year to you all.
Sorry not a BLEVE for reasons why read here
Boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia