Today Tonight Exploding Petrol Stations

OMG Who told them about this?

Tonight on TT they are running a story on how static electricity on your clothing can cause a petrol pump at a petrol station to blow up....

Have they been watching Mythbusters?

Reply to
Kissing Lettuce
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does this mean we must all get naked to fill up with fuel???

Reply to
Daran Murphy

Only the women. :)

Reply to
gyro

I quite often take a very dangerous device into service stations. It has 6 special units whose sole porpose is to create sparks. It has a very high current battery & alot of wiring, much more dangerous than any cellphone battery. Sparks can come out of the end of it, especially if it misfires. It hold 10 gallons of highly flamable liquid. & when I get out of It I get a spark from a build up of static from bum on seat.

Surely such a dangerous device is more of a danger to petrol stations than cellphones etc & should be banned.

Reply to
S Roby

Didn't ACA run this story last night, or is it tonight? They also featured it as an "Exclusive" I believe.

Reply to
RB

They don't just watch it, they have the rights to it. They claimed it's the "Channel 7 Mythbusters" this time and re-ran all the Mythbusters footage. Loved the host saying "static causes even more explosions than mobile phones" at the start, and then the segment goes on to say mobile phone don't do anything. ROFL!

Dave :)

Reply to
David L. Jones

Mine has 8 special units. ;)

Cheers, Rod.

Reply to
RodP

Children?

Reply to
Matthew(He Who Walks Behind Th

As anyone who's worked in the hydrocarbon industries will know, all this stems from the regulatory framework that's involved. In order to get insurance, a company needs to comply with the CENELEC, or SAA (ergo CENELEC rebadged), or whatever standards. These standards define various levels of hazard, depending on, amongst other things, the probability of flammable vapour mixtures being present. A petrol tank being filled turns out to be something around 'Zone II', or maybe 'Zone I' very close to the fill point. Within both those areas, electrical devices or other potential sources of ignition are subject to some degree of restriction. Whether they can really cause a bang is irrelevant, it's the rules.

Yes, given the right conditions a static electricity spark could cause an explosion while you're filling your tank. The risk is a lot lower than that of having a fatal prang on leaving the station. And you could smash your cellphone with a hammer a foot from your fuel tank filler and most likely get away with it 9999 times out of 10000. But rules are rules ........

Something I've never followed through, does anyone know what the legal basis is behind hazardous area standards??

Reply to
bruce varley

Mine has 4, and a turbine on it to suck in the cold air real quick...:>

Helps to put out the fire....

Reply to
Allan

Seems likely. Also, surprise, surprise, ACA and ray dickweed did exactly the same story, using the exact same yank video clips. A couple of years ago it was the same ray dickweed who "exposed" the danger of using cell phnes at servos.

Reply to
w_j_wolfe20o3

"David L. Jones" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Yeah exactly..what an idiot!

And later on in another story they were whining about the Americanisms creaping into our language and their stupid reporter in the exploding servo story referred to "gassing up" a car (i.e. filling it with petrol)

Geez I wish I hadn't been too involved to stop assembling my computer, walk into the other room and change the channel to something sensible like SBS news.

Charles

--
If some days are diamonds & some days are stone --
Then some days I live in a quarry!!
Reply to
Charles

I got up five minutes into the segment. I don't watch TT at the best of times due to the rampant stupidity, but tonight it took the cake.

Reply to
nva

Maybe its seven dream to put a Mythbusters segment into every show it screens.

Their advertising Mythbusters more than SBS !

Reply to
ferret

Don't you mean "A Current Affair" ? Or, don't tell me, TT ran the same story as well? Wouldn't surprise me.

Reply to
Krull

If I remember rightly, on the Mythbusters episode they interviewed some head guy from the US petroleum association or some such who investigates all these things. He said there are at least a couple of incidents a year where fires start at gas pumps due to static electricity. Zero due to mobile phones of course. A pretty low number sure, but it does happen.

Dave :)

Reply to
David L. Jones

It was TT. Didn't watch it, but kept hearing promos for it on radio, whilst at the petrol station.

Must soon gave another "cure-all" bottled water segment lined up.

Reply to
ewen_chatfield

Only the hot women!

Reply to
F1refly

It was on ACA as well for some reason. I liked some of their facts. "Most of the time the static electricity is caused when you get into your car while refuelling". Yes, might be true in the USA but in Australia they take off the little latch that allows you to leave the nozzle unattended. In Australia you have to keep your hand on the nozzle or jam your petrol cap under the lever. The problem with that is the petrol cap isn't big enough and it reduces the fuel flow.

They also said Australians fill up 9 billion times a year yet, with the exception of one clip from WA, all of the clips were from overseas. Even the one in WA was nothing to do with clothing. The fire was caused by static buildup on the tarpaulin covering the back of the ute.

Despite the fact that we fill up 9 billion times a year they didn't cite even one example of it actually happening.

MYTH BUSTED!

Reply to
F1refly

Tonight.. Well, it's last night now.

Reply to
F1refly

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