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> A question for those with oil production experience...
>
> Many years ago, people working on an oil or gas well were prohibited
> from having *any* electrical devices--which today would include
> radios, music players, digital cameras, etc. The chance of a spark,
> however remote, was considered too great a risk.
>
> In this thread, we have heard many people asking why digital shots
> were not made from a camera-equipped cell phone if nothing else. Could
> it be that no one was permitted on the production deck with a cell
> phone?
First a disclaimer: I have absolutely no oil production experience, but I have been involved with electrical and electronic devices through my whole career.
The first point I'd make is that modern electronic devices are a very different thing from the electrical devices of earlier generations. The spark hazards from electrica devices come mostly from the brushes in motors and from high-voltage or high-current switches. But modern electronic devices very seldom have motors in them; and even when they do have motors, the motors are usually low voltage brushless motors because these consume less power, make less waste heat, produce less EMI, and last much, much longer than motors with brushes. And as for switches, most modern electronic devices use electronic power switches, where the switch element only deals with a tiny low-voltage control current rather than the full supply current; this allows the switches to be much smaller, much more reliable, and completely sparkless.
But the big point is that there is no reason why a worker on an offshore oil platform would even carry a cell phone with him onto the platform because there is no cell service more than a couple of miles offshore. A *satellite* phone could be useful on a platform, but a cell phone is basically useless lump once you're out of sight of a cell tower.
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