Mobiles in hospitals

[AdamW]

I read this and remembered the discussion we had before about mobile phones being banned in hospitals.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/29/mobiles_hospitals_health/

Only 4% of devices affected, whoopy-doo! Hope I never end up on THAT machine whilst someone takes a call!

 

[TexMex]

Rather like the issue of using mobile phones in a petrol station. Highly unlikely to result in an explosion, but would you want to be on the next pump when it does.

And they say smokers are selfish

 

[AdamW]

I was in a supermarket petrol station, trying to fill up but the pump wouldn't turn on. The attendant had spotted my friend using her phone, which she had pulled out to make a call after I got out. Refused to turn the pump on until the phone was off! I didn't mind, thought it was good someone is paying attention.

But you see it all the time. Guy gets out of car/van, babbling rubbish into his phone "Yeh mate, naaar wot I mean mate? Awwwight mate, yeh mate!". Big signs everywhere telling you not to. I would tell them, but I fear I wouldn't understand their language... "Chav", I believe it is called!

 

[masona]

Rather like the issue of using mobile phones in a petrol station. Highly unlikely to result in an explosion, but would you want to be on the next pump when it does.

The reason they are banned on petrol forecourt is because if you drop it, the battery can come out causing spark onto the petrol vapour which is on the ground being lighter than air.

 

[2scoops0406]

The reason they are banned on petrol forecourt is because if you drop it, the battery can come out causing spark onto the petrol vapour which is on the ground being lighter than air.

I agree that petrol vapour is lighter than air, but wouldn't that make it float above the ground I thought the given reason was that it could make the pumps misread.... not our safety but profit

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

Rather like the issue of using mobile phones in a petrol station. Highly unlikely to result in an explosion, but would you want to be on the next pump when it does.

The reason they are banned on petrol forecourt is because if you drop it, the battery can come out causing spark onto the petrol vapour which is on the ground being lighter than air.

With red hot engines and high voltage ignition systems... and they're worried about an ickle phone battery???

Anyone remember years ago the scam involving CB radio's and burners (amplifiers)???

Apparently, it would slow down the dial that registered the quantity of fuel being delivered, but not the actual quantity!!!

CB radios were banned from use on forecourts shortly after...

 

[TexMex]

I was told the problem with mobile phone usage in Garages is due to the risk of Induced charges giving rise to a possiblitly of sparks. Rather akin to the effect of gold rimmed plates in the microwave.

Potentially, the microwaves emitted from a mobile phone could, (theoretically at least), create an induced spark in the circuitry of the pump, between the pump and your car, or whatever.

Highly unlikely, but the theoretical possibility is enough to justify the ban

 

[oilman]

......petrol vapour which is on the ground being lighter than air.

If it's on the ground it won't be lighter than air, (as it isn't, which it's why its on the ground).

Don't know about all this sparking business, since the mobile companies are using the garage signs for their transmitters, (as I understand it).

 

[pipme]

Hospitals ...... Possible Oxygen rich atmos' .... naked flame or sparks .... not a clever mix !

P

 

[AdamW]

Someone was telling me about a "jack-ass" type science programme he watched. They took a car, doused the whole thing in gallons of petrol inside and out, then put a mobile phone in it. They stood a distance off and tried phoning the phone. It just rang. I mean, petrol and diesel are both quite volatile, but look at the conditions they are put under in order to make them burn inside an engine! About 10 atmospheres' pressure plus a spark in a petrol engine, or about 15 atmospheres' pressure in a diesel. Don't get me wrong, you won't catch me pouring it all over my naked body then running near a bonfire to prove my point, but you would have to be fairly deliberate to make a petrol station go up!

I suspect it is just one of these daft things. There will be a neglible risk, but whereas you can't really make people push their cars down the road before starting the ignition, you can make them stop using their phones. I would be surprised if they affected pumps, but you never know, and if they did it would probably cost forecourts some minor percentage of their massive turnover

On the positive side, people who stand about yapping into their phones annoy me, so it saves wear and tear on my pimp-slapping hand whilst refuelling my lowrider Cadillac (I wish!)

 

[AdamW]

Hospitals ...... Possible Oxygen rich atmos' .... naked flame or sparks .... not a clever mix !

P

I was reading recently about MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machines and their dangers in hospitals. The big cylinder they stick you in is a very powerful superconducting electromagnet. So, you have to be careful not to have anything ferrous nearby. In a hospital this often means sharps things, scalpels, IVs, scissors etc.

There was a case a couple of years ago where a young boy in America had his head taken off by an oxygen cylinder because the staff hadn't thought to check if it had an iron content. Got in the chamber, power cranked up and it just flew. Being superconducting electro-magnets you can't just flick the off switch and have it all drop onto the floor, they take days to lose their field enough that you can prise a spanner or a scalpel off it. Very powerful.

Anyway, that is more of a danger than mobiles I reckon. Although again, this is something they can take precautions against. How many times have you been sat on a flight and had the chavette behind turn on her mobile and get text messages at 1000 feet on final approach?! Do they ever get arrested? I have never seen it happen.

 

[securespark]

Adam

Diesel is not volatile until put under compression. Seen cigs been extinguished by it....

Pip

The reason hospitals insist that mobiles are switched off is that they can (hmmm) interfere with electronic equipment.

Mind you this theory took a battering on 9/11.

Doctors are looking for a lifting of that ban as research shows that the interference is not happening. (And not just because everyone switches off their phones in hospital (!), because they don't).

 

[pipme]

In real fear of litigation one tries to cover all possibilities no matter how slight the danger .... Anyway nothing worse than sharing the undivided attention of a person with a mobile !!

P

 

[kendor]

Someone was telling me about a "jack-ass" type science programme he watched. They took a car, doused the whole thing in gallons of petrol inside and out, then put a mobile phone in it. They stood a distance off and tried phoning the phone. It just rang. I mean, petrol and diesel are both quite volatile, but look at the conditions they are put under in order to make them burn inside an engine! About 10 atmospheres' pressure plus a spark in a petrol engine, or about 15 atmospheres' pressure in a diesel. Don't get me wrong, you won't catch me pouring it all over my naked body then running near a bonfire to prove my point, but you would have to be fairly deliberate to make a petrol station go up!

I suspect it is just one of these daft things. There will be a neglible risk, but whereas you can't really make people push their cars down the road before starting the ignition, you can make them stop using their phones. I would be surprised if they affected pumps, but you never know, and if they did it would probably cost forecourts some minor percentage of their massive turnover

On the positive side, people who stand about yapping into their phones annoy me, so it saves wear and tear on my pimp-slapping hand whilst refuelling my lowrider Cadillac (I wish!)

the show is called braniac's science abuse on SKY, they also doused the inside of a caravan in petrol and put about 50 mobiles inside and rang them with no problems.

 

[pipme]

Funny how all this works ok ....... Until you alone are on the line TO DO IT !! Then we find out how badly we communicate !!

P