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Gas Station Explosion


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#1

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Posted 19 September 2006 - 05:17 AM

in some gas station, it is restricted to use or to turn on handphone, because it si said that there will be an explosion. Why???

can anyone give some explanation for me???

does it has relation with thermodynamics laws????

thanks or the answer...

#2 Adriaan

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Posted 20 September 2006 - 07:56 AM

The tv show BRAINIAC investigated this (by placing several cellphones - just ONE in the first try - in a caravan filled with fuel fumes, then calling those cellphones) and nothing happened.

#3

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Posted 21 September 2006 - 01:59 AM

thanks for your answer,but in my country ( I am an Indonesian), there was once an explosion in gas station, and some people say it was caused by cellphone and most of them believe it????? Then my lecturer gave me assigment to the relation of it with thermodynamic laws...

#4 proinwv

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Posted 29 September 2006 - 11:03 AM

Gasoline does not burn, but the vapors do. (Forgive me for being basic...)

To burn the fuel to air ratio is critical, about 7% (just for talking) and a relatively narrow range at that. So sometimes the safety procedures are violated and there is no fire, but that doesn't mean you can do it again.

In the handling and transport of gasoline static electricity is a significant hazard. I recently saw a video where a lady had inserted the nozzle and started to fuel and got back in her car. When she exited, returned to the nozzle and touched it, it "exploded" into a ball of fire. Static electric discharge from her in the vicinity of the nozzle.

So, do I know if the cell phone is a hazard? No, I don't know of any evidence of that but with my experience in the industry, I have a great deal of respect for the fuel and personally would not use my cell, or any potential source of energy, in the vicinity of the fueling process.

#5 MJCronin

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Posted 15 December 2006 - 01:12 PM

proinwv...

Are we to assume that use of cell phones in gas stations is reasonable, however the refueling of vehicles by women is, by its very essence, a dangerous and possibly lethal activity ?

I have always strongly felt that any combination of estrogen and gasoline is a dangerous one.....

My opinion only....

(Twice divorced)

-MJC

#6 vicini

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Posted 18 December 2006 - 03:58 PM

What we have found out after research on gas station explosions is that they are cause by static electricity that the person filling the car has built up on themselves.

The most common way for this to happen is a person gets in the car and waits for the gas to stop pumping, the gas back and grabs the fuel handle. The static discharges from the person to the handle causes a spark that egnites the fumes coming from the full tank.

Women are more proned to have this happen beacuse they wear more synthetic clothes that when rubbed on car seats create static electrical charges.

#7 proinwv

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Posted 22 December 2006 - 09:59 AM

For those interested in serious research, the API (American Petroleum Institute) has done research and published papers on this subject.

I also suspect that the NFPA, UL and PEI also have information.

#8 JBradley

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Posted 25 July 2007 - 09:44 AM

Won't a mobile phone's potential for static discharge be independant of whether or not ure making a phone call at the time???

I also believe there's a much higher risk present in the form of having an internal combustion engine present on a forecourt.

End of the day - A risk is present but it is so small as to be negligible. How many petrol (gas) station forecourts have exploded and been caused by mobile phones?

#9 Adriaan

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Posted 25 July 2007 - 04:39 PM

This is somewhat off topic yet interesting enough;

resent German research into possible harmful effects of cellphones on the human body (the main fear being radiation) has shown that with extended use the main problem is NOT the radiation (by transmission) the cellphone generates but rather the heating up of the powercell under load which, combined with the shielding effect of the phone as a whole, causes the area around the ear (more particularly from the ear down toward the mouth) to heat up somewhat.

#10 AA Mishra

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Posted 27 July 2007 - 04:22 PM

Cellophones are not intristically safe.

No problem.

Gas stations never employ explosion proof lighting.

The static electricity is also based on filling rate.

Regards

#11 packagemachine

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Posted 16 August 2007 - 11:04 PM

Study!




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