Steve Firth wrote:

(mobile 'phones causing explosions on petrol station forecourts)

What you and several other seem top be forgetting is that the vibrator
in a mobile phone is an electric motor spinning an eccentric weight. The
few reports that seem credible of explosions caused by mobile phones all
occurred while someone was standing by the filler either holding a
ringing mobile or having one in their pocket.

Who watched "Braniac", where about half a dozen 'phones were left in a
caravan which had had petrol sloshed around the inside? When they were
all dialled up, what happened? Nothing.


I think that the EM radiation from the phone is a red herring, sparks
close to petrol vapour OTOH are a genuine concern.

They concluded that the original reason for the "mobile 'phones on
forecourts" myth was probably that the charging contacts were shorted
on something, or that the bloke filling up dropped his fag.

On the same programme, a chap was seen standing on an insulator, rubbing
his nylon clothing to generate a charge. When this charge was directed
down a wire, that *did* spark an explosion.

Not that I believe all that's in the papers/on TV, but I don't think
mobiles are going to ignite petrol vapour - or cause brain tumours,
etc.