The Risk Is Small, But Warnings About Cell Phones At Gas Pumps Persist

Fifteen years ago this month, Here & Now co-host Jeremy Hobson aired his first NPR story on All Things Considered. He was an intern chasing a story about new signs cropping up at gas stations banning cell phones.

At the time, people were worried the phones would spark fires at the pump, but no credible case of that ever happening could be found.

In 2014, with billions of cell phones around the globe, we revisit that story from Jeremy's early reporting days. We wanted to figure out why those signs still hang at gas stations around the country despite the fact "there is no credible evidence of any cell phone causing an explosion at a gas station even though there were rumors as such," according to Stephen Fowler, an electrostatic engineer and president of Fowler Associates.