Few things I hate more than newscasters disseminating false information to induce panic:

From: jen funk segrest
Date: Thu Oct 30, 2003
To: tmacke@fox19.com
Subject: WRONG! gas station explosions

You featured this morning about cell phones setting off gas station fumes to cause explosions.

NOT TRUE. It’s all a urban legend.
The Urban Legen Reference pages

Need more proof you’re broadcasting lies and panic inducing misinformation?

The discovery channel show MythBusters has already done an extensive investigation, and even when the gas fumes were several hundred of times what a open air gas station could EVER have, a cell phone rang and rang and rang. They tried dozens of times. Never worked. It is a GREAT show.

HOWEVER the static electricity off women’s nylon underw DID set off an explosion, every time. The performed these tests under fireman’s supervision in a closed test environment.

Women wear alot of nylon, in skirts, hose and underw, and they are 6x’s more likely to walk back to the car and slide in to sit down and rummage in a handbag until the tank fills. The car seats are covered in nylon as well. This is why they think women are more likely to be victims of Station fires.

A woman wing hose and nylon/polyester panties or a polyester content skirt and touching her door handle is enough to generate a spark - this is how it happens. Men wear cotton briefs, less static risk.

Nylon on nylon friction = static electricity + Gas vapor = BOOM!

It’s a urban legend, pure and simple. But telling people to not wear silky panties, or get their money out before they pump gas that doesn’t put people in a blind panic, does it?

Thank you,
jen funk segrest