As a volunteer fire brigade person, let me add my $0.02 to this
discussion - it isn't the RF transmission which gives rise to the ban,
but the use of what we call "non intrinsically safe" handsets.  [This
means they **CAN** in theoy generate a spark].  We use handheld VHF
radios which aren't intrinsically safe; when we deal with explosive
atmospheres we have to use the intrinsically safe sets - each brigade
has but one of these.  In OZ, all of this stuff comes under the same set
of regulations, and it includes **EVERYTHING** - meaning, I suspect,
that you can't drive your car to the fuel supplier :-), nor can your
kids use a torch (US=Flashlight), nor probably anything else.  The signs
the proprietors put up amount to legal protection "We told you not to do
it!".
Lawyers!
/Kevin

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Kevin J. Maciunas           Net: kevin@cs.adelaide.edu.au
Dept. of Computer Science   Ph : +61 8 8303 5845
University of Adelaide      Fax: +61 8 8303 4366
Adelaide 5005
SOUTH AUSTRALIA