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Hal in Liverpool has written in to shed some light on the abiding ‘No mobiles in petrol stations’ mystery:
When I was working for Vodafone last year, I was taught that the real reason you’re not allowed to use your mobile at petrol stations is that on old fashioned non-digital counters on the pump could be manipulated by mobile phone signals. Sounds like bollocks, but worth throwing my hat into the ring.
Richard independently corroborates Hal’s story:
I heard somewhere that there was one particular model of petrol pump that was affected by mobiles and would register and incorrect amount of petrol dispensed when a mobile was used in the vicinity. Petrol companies didn’t want this knowledge to get out so banned them for safety reasons instead.
Sorry, can’t cite you a source as I heard this a good few years ago. It’s probably rubbish anyway.
It’s no more rubbish-sounding than the previous explanations; but frankly neither the petrol nor mobile phone industries are renowned for their transparency. Any of you who work for either and fancy playing snitch, place a comment below to tell us the truth behind this folly.
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Answer Me This! Podcast 
May 23, 2012 at 2:15 am |
Bit late to the party but I’m making my way though the list of podcasts as I’ve only recently discovered them…
Reason for phone bans at petrol stations is a carry over from the days where you could hang the nozzle in the petrol hole and leave it there. The issue was that people that were on the phone and getting back in and out of the car would not touch the frame of the car on the way out and discharging their static electric charge. When the filling was then completed and they pulled the nozzle out of the tank, the static charge would arc with the frame of the car and ignite the petrol gasses + petrol itself and start a fire.
Not sure about the uk, but in australia you can’t lock the nozzle in “on” mode so this is probably a bit outdated but they’ve just kept it in place for safety’s sake
mythbusters tested this myth in episode 2 of their 2003 series