Claim: The use of cellular phones poses a danger of touching off explosions at gas stations
Verdict: REFUTES

Retrieved passages:
title: Filling station
text: point. The Petroleum Equipment Institute has recorded incidents of static-related ignition at refueling sites since early 2000. Although urban legends persist that a mobile phone can cause sparks, this has not been duplicated under any controlled condition. Nevertheless, mobile phone manufacturers and gas stations ask users to switch off their phones. One suggested origin of this myth is said to have been started by gas station companies because the cell phone signal would interfere with the fuel counter on some older model fuel pumps causing it to give a lower reading. In the MythBusters episode "Cell Phone Destruction", investigators concluded

title: Mobile telephony
text: a similar vein, signs are put up in many countries, such as Canada, the UK and the U.S., at petrol stations prohibiting the use of mobile phones, due to possible safety issues. However, it is unlikely that mobile phone use can cause any problems, and in fact "petrol station employees have themselves spread the rumour about alleged incidents." Like all high structures, cellular antenna masts pose a hazard to low flying aircraft. Towers over a certain height or towers that are close to airports or heliports are normally required to have warning lights. There have been reports that warning lights

title: Filling station
text: that explosions attributed to cell phones could be caused by static discharges from clothing instead and also observed that such incidents seem to involve women more often than men. The U.S. National Fire Protection Association does most of the research and code writing to address the potential for explosions of gasoline vapor. The customer fueling area, up to above the surface, normally does not have explosive concentrations of vapors, but may from time to time. Above this height, where most fuel filler necks are located, there is no expectation of an explosive concentration of gasoline vapor in normal operating conditions.

title: Filling station
text: some gasoline — which has historically been used to "thin" diesel fuel in winter. In most countries, petrol stations are subjected to guidelines and regulations which exist to minimise the potential of fires, and increase safety. It is prohibited to use open flames and, in some places, mobile phones on the forecourt of a filling station because of the risk of igniting gasoline vapor. In the U.S. the fire marshal is responsible for regulations at the gas pump. Most localities ban smoking, open flames and running engines. Since the increased occurrence of static-related fires many stations have warnings about leaving

title: Mobile phones on aircraft
text: could solve the present problems. On the other hand, official aviation agencies and safety boards are resisting any relaxation of the present safety rules unless and until it can be conclusively shown that it would be safe to do so. There are both technical and social factors which make the issues more complex than a simple discussion of safety versus hazard. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) restricts cell phone usage on aircraft in order to prevent disruption to cellular towers on the ground. As mentioned above, the FAA allows the in-flight use of wireless devices but

title: Mobile phone
text: are able to track a phone's location, read messages, and record calls, just by knowing the phone number. Mobile phone use while driving, including talking on the phone, texting, or operating other phone features, is common but controversial. It is widely considered dangerous due to distracted driving. Being distracted while operating a motor vehicle has been shown to increase the risk of accidents. In September 2010, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that 995 people were killed by drivers distracted by cell phones. In March 2011, a U.S. insurance company, State Farm Insurance, announced the results of

title: Base station
text: phone radiation and health. Hand-held mobile telephones are relatively low power so the RF radiation exposures from them are generally low. The World Health Organization has concluded that "there is no convincing scientific evidence that the weak RF signals from base stations and wireless networks cause adverse health effects." The consensus of the scientific community is that the power from these mobile phone base station antennas is too low to produce health hazards as long as people are kept away from direct access to the antennas. However, current international exposure guidelines (ICNIRP) are based largely on the "thermal" effects of

title: Mobile phone overuse
text: potentially hazardous and can be "toxic" to the back of the eye. He states that an over exposure to blue violet light can lead to a greater risk of macular degeneration which is a leading cause of blindness. There are concerns that some mobile phone users incur considerable debt, and that mobile phones are being used to violate privacy and harass others. In particular, there is increasing evidence that mobile phones are being used as a tool by children to bully other children. There is a large amount of research on mobile phone use, and its positive and negative influence

title: Mobile phones and driving safety
text: Mobile phones and driving safety Mobile phone use while driving is common, but it is widely considered dangerous due to its potential for causing distracted driving and accidents. Due to the number of accidents that are related to conducting calls on a phone and texting while driving, some jurisdictions have made the use of calling on a phone while driving illegal. Many jurisdictions have enacted laws to ban handheld mobile phone use. Nevertheless, many jurisdictions allow use of a hands-free device. Driving while using a hands-free device is not safer than using a handheld phone to conduct calls, as concluded

title: Mobile telephony
text: the terrorists. The Finnish government decided in 2005 that the fastest way to warn citizens of disasters was the mobile phone network. In Japan, mobile phone companies provide immediate notification of earthquakes and other natural disasters to their customers free of charge. In the event of an emergency, disaster response crews can locate trapped or injured people using the signals from their mobile phones. An interactive menu accessible through the phone's Internet browser notifies the company if the user is safe or in distress. In Finland rescue services suggest hikers carry mobile phones in case of emergency even when deep

title: Yokohama Municipal Subway
text: notice of the car is decreasing than before, it is not completely thorough, and because a lot of passengers were actually using the cell phone in the train, In July 2011, the "mobile phone power off area" was set up in each vehicle, and it was decided to officially ban the use of mobile phones except for calls outside the area. Timetable for the operation schedule of the wrapping vehicle is published on the official website of the Transportation Bureau. In the blue line, for the implementation of one-man operation, the operation of the ATO (automatic Train operation device) has

title: Mobile phones on aircraft
text: U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) currently prohibits the use of mobile phones aboard "any" aircraft in flight. The reason given is that cell phone systems depend on frequency reuse, which allows for a dramatic increase in the number of customers that can be served within a geographic area on a limited amount of radio spectrum, and operating a phone at an altitude may violate the fundamental assumptions that allow channel reuse to work. Mobile phones on aircraft In the U.S., Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations prohibit the use of mobile phones aboard aircraft in flight. Contrary to popular misconception, the

title: Mobile phone
text: systems, such as data communication networks, produce similar radiation. On 31 May 2011, the World Health Organization stated that mobile phone use may possibly represent a long-term health risk, classifying mobile phone radiation as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" after a team of scientists reviewed studies on mobile phone safety. The mobile phone is in category 2B, which ranks it alongside coffee and other possibly carcinogenic substances. Some recent studies have found an association between mobile phone use and certain kinds of brain and salivary gland tumors. Lennart Hardell and other authors of a 2009 meta-analysis of 11 studies from peer-reviewed

title: Mobile phone radiation and health
text: They involve recommendations such as the minimization of cellphone usage, the limitation of use by at-risk population (such as children), the adoption of cellphones and microcells with as low as reasonably practicable levels of radiation, the wider use of hands-free and earphone technologies such as Bluetooth headsets, the adoption of maximal standards of exposure, RF field intensity and distance of base stations antennas from human habitations, and so forth. Overall, public information remains a challenge as various health consequences are evoked in the literature and by the media, putting populations under chronic exposure to potentially worrying information. In May 2011,

title: Duck and cover
text: equipment drawing power/electrical load, while the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) from a surface/ground-burst explosion would cause little damage outside the blast area, so cell phone towers that survive the blast should be capable of carrying communications. But if communications during the 9/11 attacks or after a major hurricane are anything to go by, and the cell phone network towers survive, the service would be overloaded (a mass call event) and thereby made useless soon after; however, if prior arrangements between the cell network and emergency responders are made to give them priority and bar access to all other individuals, then it

title: Mobile phone overuse
text: they wanted. This survey shows the psychological effect that cell phones have on people, specifically young people. Checking a cell phone has become a normal daily event for many people over the years just as getting dressed in the morning is, people don't feel right when they don't do it. Mobile phone overuse can be especially dangerous in certain situations such as texting and driving or talking on the phone while driving. Over 8 people are killed and 1,161 are injured daily because of distracted driving. At any given daylight moment across America, approximately 660,000 drivers are using cell phones

title: Mobile phones and driving safety
text: that: "No studies were found that directly address and resolve the issue of whether a causal relation exists between cellular telephone use while operating a motor vehicle and motor vehicle collisions." Meta-analysis by the Canadian Automobile Association and the University of Illinois found that response time while using both hands-free and hand-held phones was approximately 0.5 standard deviations higher than normal driving (i.e. an average driver, while talking on a cell phone, has response times of a driver in roughly the 40th percentile). In the US, the number of cell phone subscribers has increased by 1,262.4% between the years 1985-2008.

title: Mobile telephony
text: communications authorities has launched a campaign to remind mobile phone users of courtesy, especially when using mass transit—what to talk about on the phone, and how to. In particular, the campaign wants to impact loud mobile phone usage as well as calls regarding sensitive matters. The use of mobile phones by people who are driving has become increasingly common, for example as part of their job, as in the case of delivery drivers who are calling a client, or socially as for commuters who are chatting with a friend. While many drivers have embraced the convenience of using their cellphone

title: Mobile phones and driving safety
text: Driving while using a handsfree cellular device is not safer than using a hand held cell phone, as concluded by case-crossover studies, epidemiological, simulation, and meta-analysis. The increased cognitive workload involved in holding a conversation, not the use of hands, causes the increased risk. For example, a Carnegie Mellon University study found that merely listening to somebody speak on a phone caused a 37% drop in activity in the parietal lobe, where spatial tasks are managed. The consistency of increased crash risk between hands-free and hand held cell phone use is at odds with legislation in many locations that prohibits

title: Mobile phones and driving safety
text: Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), the provincial automobile insurance association in Quebec, conducted a study on driving and cellphones in 2003. Questionnaires were sent to 175,000 drivers and analysis was done on the 36,078 who responded. The questionnaire asked about driving habits, risk exposure, collisions over the past 24 months, socio-demographic information, and cell phone use. Questionnaires were supported with data from cell phone companies and accident records held by police. The study found that the overall relative risk (RR) of having an accident for cell phone users when compared to non-cell phone users averaged 1.38 across all