Only in California, and coming soon to a State near you...<sigh>

[B][SIZE=4]This is crazy...California, the land of fruits and nuts...[/SIZE][/B]

13 known failures out of how man millions of uses???? One person hospitalized??? Filling your car is safer than cutting on Onion, shall we ban knives next?? Nutcrackers???? Pencils???? They must save us from ourselves...

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[B]California orders gas stations to repair VST brand nozzles[/B]

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By Mark Glover
[EMAIL="mglover@sacbee.com"]mglover@sacbee.com[/EMAIL]
Published: Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 6B
Last Modified: Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010 - 12:08 am

<!-- CLOSE: #story_header --> Citing "a hazard to the public health and welfare," the state fire marshal on Monday issued a mandate to remove thousands of "hold open" latches on gas pump nozzles statewide.
Acting State Fire Marshal Tonya L. Hoover spelled out specifics in a letter mailed to operators of about 3,000 service stations, or nearly one-third the total in California.
It's not known how many gas stations in the Sacramento region are affected or who will pay for the new latches.
The state cited a potential fire hazard from malfunctioning latches on nozzles manufactured by Springboro, Ohio-based Vapor Systems Technologies Inc. The fire marshal said the malfunction could unexpectedly spray gasoline before a nozzle is inserted into a vehicle's gas tank.
The affected nozzles are marked with the "VST" logo.
Station operators must have the latches removed by Oct. 15 "by competent personnel, such as certified service station contractors."
"They'll need to do that until a permanent solution or a new nozzle is ready," state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Daniel Berlant said.
The fire marshal also recommends that stations post a sign saying the "hold-open" clips have been removed and warning customers to not use foreign objects to wedge open nozzle levers, which some customers have done.
Berlant said an undetermined number of stations already have removed the latches, following a June 10 state-issued alert that "damaged" VST nozzles were spraying gasoline.
[COLOR=Red]The number of reported gas-spraying incidents is small – 13 confirmed by state officials, including one person who was hospitalized when gas spurted into his face and eyes.[/COLOR]
Public safety – with the potential of sprayed gasoline catching fire – is the state's primary concern.
"This is a fire and safety hazard, so there's really no other choice," Berlant said.
State officials said VST and service station owners groups have been cooperating.
However, some hard feelings are evident.
Lawyer Todd Sorrell, VST's counsel in California, said the nozzles were approved by the state as part of a California-mandated vapor recovery system designed to reduce air pollution at gas stations.
"They passed the state's rigorous testing, and since their introduction, they've been used over 1 billion times in California without any spray or leaking," Sorrell said.
Sorrell also noted that some nozzles might have been damaged by consumers, some of whom forget to remove a nozzle and pull away from a gas pump.
Sorrell said VST expects to "bring a new nozzle to the market with an additional safety mechanism built into it" within one or two months, but it will depend on how quickly the state inspects and approves the new models.
Jay McKeeman, vice president of government relations for the Sacramento-based California Independent Oil Marketers Association, likewise noted that current VST nozzles passed state inspection during last year's vapor emissions upgrades.
McKeeman, whose CIOMA members are primarily small-business operators and fuel distributors, suggested that a fund – similar to what BP established for cleanup compensation costs in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill – be established to defray potentially devastating costs to service station operators, who have already spent tens of thousands to meet state standards on gas vapor emissions.
Last year, the service station industry said retrofits cost about $11,000 per pump, or an average of about $80,000 for a typical service station.
For the VST latches, no one was willing Monday to put a price tag on the retrofits or determine who should pay the costs.
[B]GAS STATION NOZZLES AT A GLANCE[/B]

What it does: The acting state fire marshal on Monday issued a safety mandate requiring removal of certain "hold open" latches used on some gas station nozzles.
Who's affected: Some 3,000 California service stations using gas pump nozzles manufactured by Springboro, Ohio-based Vapor Systems Technologies Inc. It's not clear how many of those are in the Sacramento region.
What's the problem:[B] The state fire marshal says the "hold open" latches on VST nozzles could unexpectedly malfunction, creating a spray of gasoline before the nozzle is inserted into a vehicle's gas tank. According to the California Air Resources Board, 13 gas-spraying incidents have been reported, including one person who was hospitalized. [/B]
What's the fix:[B] Latches must be removed by Oct. 15 by certified personnel. Gas stations with affected nozzles are asked to post warning signs, reminding consumers to not use foreign objects to wedge open a nozzle lever during fueling.[/B]
[B]Source: California State Fire Marshal[/B]

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Again..too many people in high places..higher than us anyway..making BIG $$$$, ALL trying to justify their miserable existence,by trying to create additional inane rules and regulations,and legislations.

FWIW, I haven't seen a "hold open clip" at a gas station here in Ontario in years. Some other Ontario big-shot must have already had a million $$ inquiry here to discuss this same situation. Guess I missed it..lol.

:confused::rolleyes::cursing:

Makes me want to move there. :lol::001_tt2::lol::001_tt2::lol::001_tt2:. `
I beieve in Oregan it is against the law to pump your own gas.

Greg

Greg, That is correct, you can't pump your own gas in Oregon. (note spelling) When I lived in California, about 6 yrs ago, I pulled into a self serve station, and inserted the nozzle into my tank opening, set the hold open lever on full blast, walked away, and started washing my windshield, all of a sudden the cable that puts return preasure on the hose, pulled the nozzle out of the my tank, it hit the ground and did not shut off, it kept pumping gas at full preasure until I could get to it and turn it off. There was a puddle of gas about the size of my van on the cement, I ran to the inside to tell the attendent who was a girl about 18 yrs old who could care less, I told her that it was a dangerous fire hazard out there and she said " oh well" frustrated, I pushed my van away from the puddle but the fumes were bad it was still scary. I got out of there unscaved but I was lucky, it could have been bad.....Although I have been doing that same thing for 50 yrs and never heard of that happening before. Michael

Don't speak so fast Frank. I had a nozzle stick open on me at the pumps once and gas just kept pumping all down inside the fender of my car and all over the ground underneath and I found myself standing in a puddle of gas. I too pushed my car away from the pump and had to let it dry out before I'd even consider firing it up. THAT'S why you won't find them in Ontario anymore.

You and Docteur Peepere don't have that 'BP like' ignore the possibilities and worry about the consequences later frame of mind........do you?

Michael:

Sorry I get fat fingers sometimes when I type.
Here in Indiana all station have what I call a panic button that can be hit and will shut off the power to the pumps, it is a big red button.
Also the person using the pump is responsible for the spill and can be charged for the clean up. Not sure I agree with that one 100%.
Also the pumps have a shut off valve at the base of the pumps that closes the flow if the pump is hit or a broken off low to the base of the pump.

Greg

Greg, no biggie, I didn't mean to come off sounding like a d**k, sorry if I did.

Hey is it me or with the new changes, did we lose spell check? Michael

The state should just make the pumps them self that way when they deside that they are made unsafe they can just blame them self and make us pay for it!!

On the other hand everything I eat gives me gas!!

And the spell check thing is a big pain for me as I don't spell well or any thing else!

[QUOTE=BlueWagoon;368405]Don't speak so fast Frank. I had a nozzle stick open on me at the pumps once and gas just kept pumping all down inside the fender of my car and all over the ground underneath and I found myself standing in a puddle of gas. I too pushed my car away from the pump and had to let it dry out before I'd even consider firing it up. THAT'S why you won't find them in Ontario anymore.

You and Docteur Peepere don't have that 'BP like' ignore the possibilities and worry about the consequences later frame of mind........do you?[/QUOTE]

BP like? Good grief man..You gotta be kidding me Andy. Your comparison is slightly askew. :blink:

You don't like the auto shut off, fine ..let's go one step further. One is holding onto the handle..no "hold open clip"..and the plunger still sticks in the nozzle even AFTER you let the handle go? That's happened to me. How do you prevent that?

It's just like anything else. There are always some kind of malufunctions with the equipment. Might be one in 1,000,000,000 pumpings..but equipment failure/equipment malfunction happens,even with the best maintenance.

You can't prevent the invevitable. You can't make EVERYTHING totally 110% safe or idiot proof. No one can.

[QUOTE=rdln66;368472]You can't make EVERYTHING totally 110% safe or idiot proof. No one can.[/QUOTE]

Yeah you right Frank...but they are gonna keep trying until we are so dumb we can't even BREATHE for ourselves!!! However this is a topic that will likely get banned from this forum (rules ~ ya know). :001_huh:

Equipment WILL always fail a certain percentage of times and the best we can do in such cases is to be 100% aware of the options and how to deal with the inevitable when it should arise. I've always noted the emergency shut off switches at gas stations and wondered if they have ever been used.

Haney and Bluewagon are great examples of reacting calmly in a crazy situation...we should all be so level headed. Can't say I'd be as calm in the same situation...

At the same time I have to agree with Scott: living in a state that is so poorly budgeted that we threaten to pay civil servants and tax refunds in IOUs I often wonder if we really need more expensive legislation to enforce something that gas station owners should take care of themselves? I mean isn't it less expensive to remove the VST nozzles than it would be to rebuild the filling station and absorb the increase in insurance required to operate said station after it explodes and burns to the ground taking a few customers with it? Seems as though the station owners would want to do this quickly and on their own...but hey, [B]that would be too logical I suppose....
[/B]

Ha Scott NY has done something before California - We havent had hold open levers for years hear. They also have signs saying dont use your cell phone at a pump because someone actually got theirs to spark and cause an explosion, somewhere out there. And I like that I dont have to pump my own gas in NJ because it is still 20-30 cents cheaper than in NY where I have to pump my own.

I'm sure that is Urban myth Charlie. Cell phone has never been known to start a gas station fire yet.

I suppose if you THREW it at the nozzle whilst it was filling..you might get a spark.

My cell phone rang when I was refueling. Nothing happened. LOL

For further info on this myth.... [B][URL="http://www.snopes.com/autos/hazards/gasvapor.asp"]SNOPES[/URL] [/B]