Static Electricity Control (SEC) recommend that any workplace with static related issues or where static may be considered a hazard, that workplace conduct a static assessment and initiate a static control plan.
Static Electricity Assessments and Static Control Plans should be conducted by a competent person - A person, who has acquired, through education, training, qualification or experience or a combination of these, the knowledge and skill enabling that person to perform the required task correctly
Static Electricity Assessment:
A static electricity assessment is the survey of an environment, to determine whether a static hazard exists. A detailed static electricity assessment shall be conducted whenever the potential for a static electricity hazard is identified. The static electricity assessment shall be available for all personnel and visitors before entering the site.
The static electricity assessment shall be accessible on-site in hard copy or electronic format.
NOTE: A hard copy is recommended in situations where electronic copies are not easily accessible.
The challenge for a workplace that is not familiar with static electricity is whether to engage the services of a competent person to conduct a static electricity assessment. There are definitely workplaces where static is not an issue and workplaces where static is an obvious issue. However there are workplaces such as kindergartens or child care centers, supermarkets and retail spaces where the increase in static reported incidents has significantly increased. In the past these workplaces would have been considered unlikely to have static related issues.
Static Electricity Control Plan:
A static electricity control plan is a document that provides a detailed analysis of an identified static hazard (or hazards), with recommendations for static controls to reduce or remove the risks associated with the static hazard. A static electricity control plan shall be created for all static hazards identified during the assessment. The static electricity control plan shall be available for all personnel and visitors before entering the site. The static electricity control plan shall be accessible on-site in hard copy or electronic format.
NOTE: A hard copy is recommended in situations where electronic copies are not easily accessible.
Static Electricity Control Plans are detailed plans that include but are not limited to:
(a) scope statement or introduction;
(b) a list of current static control equipment or measures, serialization, location and mapping
(c) incident reports
(d) static in situ measurements
(e) surface resistivity measurements
(f) earthing and bonding tests
(g) static kV mapping