Better safe than sorry?

I continue to struggle with what it means to have a “Beyond the Finish Line” mentality toward Safety, since it seems to go from being usefully safe to paranoia and busy-bodiness.

Take this example of someone who won a safety award in the company:

[Name redacted] recently spotted a woman using her mobile phone while sitting in her car at a gas station. Mobile phones are banned on gas station islands and signs are placed near to the pumps to remind people of this. The potential for an explosion is still present even when sitting in your car as gas fumes will enter the car through air vents. [Name] walked over to the woman and tapped on her window and explained politely that she should not be using her phone at the island. She acknowledged and put her phone away. This is an example of a [insert safety program name here] approach to Safety.  [Name] acted on the behalf of everyone in an appropriate manner.

Or did he?  Never mind that in some areas he would have risked getting shot (the irony would have abounded).  Was this an appropriate  of his time?  Would have have been better off — or contributed more to the woman’s safety — if he’d gone around and checked her tire treads?  At what point does wanting everyone to be safe become counter-productive?

And what about that “cell phone use at gas stations” thing?

Did a bit of Google research:

Rumors about this have been floating around the internet as long as there have been cell phones and, well, the internet.  Some older sites on the subject suggest that mobile phone manufacturers and gas companies offering warnings were taking a better safe than sorry approach, but without any actual proof of an incident aside from the occasional chain e-mail.  The only seriously suggested proof was a 2004 case where a cell phone was initially blamed for a gas station fire — though a fire official noted at the time that anything that could cause a spark, including women’s nylons rubbing together, were a risk.  And, in fact, the 2004 report seems to have been in error, and that, indeed, some sort of static electricity other than a mobile phone was at fault.

(Note that while people are told they shouldn’t use mobile phones at a gas pump, the 2004 case (and most Internet ilk) have explosions occurring when someone’s mobile rang.  The answer would seem to be that you should turn your cell phone (and pager!) off before you go to a gas station — but nobody is making that particular suggestion, instead just saying you shouldn’t make calls.)

I did find this newish video which purports to show such an explosion — though it’s difficult to tell in the picture and the guy is, well,  standing on top of a fuel truck with the tank just opened (a maximum fume setting). (The commenters seem less than sanguine, for the most part, over what’s actually happening in the video.)

It’s not even actually clear how a mobile phone could cause an explosion.  Solid state electronic rings and small batteries seem a lot less likely to cause a problem than, say, a car battery, or a car’s own ignition system (not to mention, if we’re talking about electronics,  the lighting or PA systems at gas pumps, or the electronic pumps themselves).  Or little Billy or Suzie sitting in the back of the car playing their Nintendo.

Expert opinion — lawyer-satisfying disclaimers and warning labels aside — indicate that this is an extremely low risk, if it all. And that seems to be the general consensus.  As opposed to, say, very real and documented issues of static electricity and gas stations.

So … is it worth going over and telling someone at a gas station to knock it off?  My vote:  no, not really.