DANGERS OF STATIC CHARGE

What is static electricity?

• ·         When you walk across the rug and you reach for the doorknob, what happens when you touch it? Yes the shock that you get from touching the doorknob is known as static electricity.

·         Or when you come in from playing in the snow and remove your hat, the hat rubs your hair and electrons move from your hair to the hat, creating a static charge. When objects have the same charge, they repel each other, which means they try to get as far from each other as possible.

Uses of static electricity.

• ·      Static electricity is very useful today in our day to day lives.  It has many very important uses that help people like you and me do tasks easily and help us clean things that we use.

·         Some of these uses are:

1.      Pollution control

2.      Xerography

3.      Painting cars

static air chimney

DANGERS OF STATIC ELECTRICITY

• Static electricity is very useful to humans in many ways. It helps us do work more efficiently and it helps to purify the dirty air and make the world a cleaner and much safer environment for us humans to live and breathe in. It can also cause death.

              some of these dangers are:

                           1.      Car pumps

1.                        2. Electric shock

Car pumps:

•      Car pumps can be dangerous when putting gasoline into the tank of a car. When a body rubs against the car seat, static electricity can be produced. The electricity builds up and has nowhere to go to. When the pump comes in contact with the vehicle, static electricity can transfer from the vehicle to the nozzle of the pump. This can create a spark and if it touches the gas supply, it can cause an explosion. Explosions can kill people and thus it is labelled as dangerous/hazardous.

 Electric shock:

•      In most cases of static electricity shock, the static electricity in a wall socket can build up. If it comes into contact with a metallic object that contains a buildup of static electricity can cause an electric shock. A high voltage electric shock can cause one to be paralyzed, develop paranoia or even die. This is the reason for it being termed as dangerous/hazardous.

 SCIENTIFIC WAYS ON HOW TO PREVENT STATIC ELECTRICITY HAZARDS

•  Using science, people are able to solve or to prevent static electricity discharges from happening. These preventive measures help to prevent disaster caused by static electricity discharge. These measures are:

1.      Additives

2.      Triboelectrification

3.      Other

Additives:

• ·         Certain fuel additives can cause the fuel to be more conductible. This can be prevented by increasing the conductivity of a liquid by using anti-static additives, or mixing in other more conductive liquids (for example, ethanol and acetone).

Triboelectrification

• Charging something by friction by rubbing it with something else, is known as triboelectrification. to prevent this, connect two or more conductive objects together with a conductor(like a wire) to equalize potential charge between them.

Other:

• Static-dissipating soles on shoes and treated or cotton clothing can help reduce static buildup.
• Inspect and repair grounding wires, straps, connections, clamps, etc. to ensure a good path to ground is maintained.

References:

·         Static electricity (industrial accident prevention association, Ontario, Canada): www.iapa.ca/Main/documents/pdf/2004_feb_Static%20Electricity.pdf

·         Stop static (petroleum equipment institute): www.pei.org/PublicationsResources/SafetyResources/StopStaticCampaign.aspx

·         Static and current electricity. 

      www.s-cool.co.uk/gcse/physics/static-and-current-electricity/revise-it/static-electricity