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This past month we have lived with the COVID19 pandemic and the fear that comes with it. I have spent hours trying to stop one of the social media myths about COVID19 and gas pump handles. There have been viral posts suggesting that people use plastic shopping bags to handle the gas pump handle so they could avoid having to touch the handle directly for fear of coming into contact with the COVID19 virus. But there is a VERY SERIOUS HAZARD associated with having a plastic bag flying around right at the point where we have gasoline fumes. We MUST remember that fueling fires at gas pumps are caused BY the person and the STATIC we generate by our movements. When we grab the fuel nozzle we discharge the static from us to the grounded nozzle and if there is the right mixture of fuel and air we have a flash fire. The addition of the plastic bag is a HUGE static generator. I have seen some folks fastening the bag to the handle (as shown in the middle pic above) while the fuel is flowing and the bag is just blowing in the wind – GENERATING STATIC ELECTRICITY! We generate more than enough by our own movements during the fueling process; the addition of a plastic shopping bag is its own generator, EVEN when the human does everything right.
DO NOT USE A PLASTIC SHOPPING BAG AT THE FUEL PUMP!
Nitrile or Neoprene gloves can be used safely as they are NOT a static generator AND may even act as an insulator preventing the charge we generate from discharging to the fuel handle.