How to prevent electric shocks in the office?

Question

In my office, I get electric shocks of filing cabinets, the shredding machine, door handles etc.

Is there any way of preventing these?

Answer 1

Taken directly from:
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mstaticdischarge.html

"My first piece of advice is to stop wearing rubber shoes. Rubber has a strong tendency to accumulate charge when rubbed against certain fabrics, and if your office is carpeted, that might be the culprit. You probably thought that rubber would protect you, being an insulator, but a static shock doesn't need to travel through your feet. If your skin is at a different electric potential than, say, the doornob you touch, a current will travel between your hand and the knob without needing to pass through anything else.

My second piece of advice is that whenever you're going to be touching anything which might shock you, get a key or coin or similar metal object out of your pocket, and touch it with that first. It's not actually the current which hurts in a typical static shock, it's the arc of current through the air. If you make contact with a key, then the arc won't need to make contact with your skin, so it won't hurt.

The final thing to keep in mind is that you don't want to be insulated, you want to be grounded, so that any static charge drains away rather than accumulates. One way to do this is by using an anti-static mat under your computer, assuming you have a computer. The mat has a wire that connects to any handy earth ground (a properly wired three-prong electrical outlet provides such a ground). You can also get anti-static wrist straps, but they're more cumbersome--routine contact with the mat ought to be sufficient to discharge static buildup. You can purchase anti-static mats and straps at a computer store."

Answer 2

How To Prevent Electric Shocks

Answer 3

Higher humidity will solve the problem in the long term but since you probably won't get an office humidifier immediately, just try this:

There's an old trick that security guards use to prevent static shocks (from door handles) while doing their rounds.

Hold a key in your hand and touch the door handle with it before you grab hold. This discharges the static electricity harmlessly.

As the seasons change and humidity increases, the problem will probably take care of itself.

Answer 4

before touching a door handle, flick it with your finger nail first. This discharges all the static electricity that may be on you so you don't feel it shock you. Then you're free to open the door without being shocked.

Answer 5

1. I go barefoot all the time. The interaction between your shoes and your carpets is giving you a charge with respect to those other objects.

2. Hold out a key, and touch the key to the object. The key will get zapped, and you won't be in so much pain.

Answer 6

I hate getting static shocks too, used to get zapped so badly you could see and hear the spark!! So I stopped wearing woollen jumpers and other things that induced a static charge when I had to walk over carpet, and the shocks stopped.

Answer 7

you could run a little grounding strap from your ankle to the nearest pipe

but the problem is usually low humidity
things that will help ( other than a humidifier ) would be an anti-static spray and natural fabrics instead of nylon and poly

Answer 8

Yes , as this is caused by 'static' I suggest you stop wearing sheer silk underwear, you seem a very nice feller, do you really need it?
Or if that fails strap on one of those earthing strips to your butt, like they have on the rear end of a car, you can get some quite nice ones now.
Hope this helps???

Answer 9

Go around in bare feet, then the static will gradually earth as you walk around. It's due to cheap nylon carpets and rubber soled shoes.
It's much more fun to rub your feet on the carpet and then poke your boss though!

Answer 10

Touch them with your elbow first and then it'll be safe for your fingertips to touch.
the static shocks won't hurt your elbows cuz the nerves are not as sensitive there.

I get that too. I have a chair that creates + & - charges when I sit in it. and when I touch something metal it shocks me, but I touch it with my elbows so I don't feel it.