Phones Cause Explosions At Fuel Pumps?
from the gotta-check-those-facts dept
It appears that a major news publication in Australia has been suckered. The urban legend of mobile phones causing fuel pumps to explode has been making its way around the internet for years. However, a newspaper in Australia has printed it as fact, even repeating a number of incidents of explosions directly from one of the emails making its way around the internet. Of course a little bit of simple fact checking would turn up any number of sites talking about the hoax. Or, they could have done the most obvious bit of fact checking and gone to the Shell.com website, where they clearly state that they know of no such incidents and the email supposedly from them is not true (even though they do recommend that you not use your mobile phone at the pump).
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NYT
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its not true
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How about exploding batteries?
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No Subject Given
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And then monkeys fly out of your butt.
Hey, it could happen.
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Just another example of a (fill in blank - corrupt, lazy, ignortant, biased, all of the above) press.
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And according to one of the cellphone-gasoline research sites, you are far more likely to have the gas explode getting into and out of your car on a hot day while fueling a vehicle.
Yet I've seen my share of folks at the gas pump take off their cell phone and begin pumping, only to get back into their car to yak on the phone while their tank overflows and the gas spills all over the ground. Luckily, most of the gas stations here in San Diego now have noticable signs stating you should not go back into your vehicle while fueling....now hopefully someone will start reading the sign at the pump instead of their hoax email.
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Mean while on the West Bank...
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