Anatomy of a techno-myth

Economist.com article: (Subscription required.)

"DO MOBILE phones cause explosions at petrol stations? That question has just been exhaustively answered by Adam Burgess, a researcher at the University of Kent, in England. Oddly, however, Dr Burgess is not a physicist, but a sociologist. For the concern rests not on scientific evidence of any danger, but is instead the result of sociological factors: it is an urban myth, supported and propagated by official sources, but no less a myth for that."

Urban myths are perhaps the worst case example of products of informal knowledge systems. It would be a shame if the dissemination of mobile phones were impeded by false beliefs of this kind. Equally, in poor nations, added costs of protection against unreal but imagined dangers are especially unfortunate.