Fiery Phones

OK, I couldn't just keep this quiet anymore. I am sick and fed-up of people lecturing me to not use my handphone around a petrol station.

It sounds sort of believable. There are news reports of this sort of thing happening. Shell has put up signs discouraging people from smoking, having the car engine running or (you guessed it) using a handphone while filling the car with petrol. Now the Malaysian government is advertising on radio and TV warning people not to use their handphone at petrol stations.

The news report linked above has three cases of when a handphone had caused a fire at a petrol station, so as a risk that has been esablished, it's good to try and reduce that risk. Switch off handphones at petrol stations.

This is all good, I suppose, for the paranoid out there, except for one thing: It seems that there are no - let me repeat this again: no - examples of handphones causing fires in petrol stations. My sources backing this statement are the ever-reliable snopes.com as well as truthorfiction.com.

For some local spin on this, see the National Institute Of Occupational Safety And Health forums.

My take on it? Well, I'll call you up next time I'm refuelling to let you know...