Explosive Contact

Picture from Mark D. Robert's website

Could using your cellular device while pumping gas into your vehicle put you in danger? This myth started circulating the Internet in 1999 when there was talk of an incident in Indonesia in which a driver was horribly burned and his car destroyed because he was chatting with a friend using his cell phone at the gasoline pumps. Suspiciously, no more information about the accident was posted to the media. Although there was an article in the Bangkok Post about another accident much like the first, occurring in China, many scientists are determined to find the correct answer. So is it true or false?

Picture from: Snopes Website

The question relies mostly on whether or not cell phones can create enough static electricity to ignite the fumes of the gasoline present at a gas station. Static electricity occurs when there is a large amount or a build up of electric charge on an object—or in this case, a person. Can one little device cause a catastrophic fire and put people in grave danger?

This legend is surprisingly false! The National Research Center for Woman and Families (NRCWF) website states that there had been incidents where victims claimed that the cause of the fire at the gas station was the product of their cell phones, but no information had gone any further than the internet. They recommend as a precaution to turn off cell phones or leave them in the car while pumping gas, although it is not necessary. The NRCWF never found that cell phones are the cause of fires. PEI webpage says that they have never recorded a single incident of a cell phone causing a gas station fire. These rumors are spreading through the Internet and E-mail like fire in a dry field. They are 100% untrue, and should be ignored. It is now a known fact that cell phones do not cause enough static electricity to produce fires in gas stations.