Greetings Experts!
I understand that it is mandatory for all personnel to test their footwear at the turnstile prior entering into EPA.
Can we give exemptions to pregnant personnel or is it safe for them to test at the turnstile in a normal basis?
Kindly advise.
Regards,
Logan
Logan,
I believe you are concerned that the current passing through the body may be a health concern. You mentioned pregnancy but you could also be concerned for other health conditions like people with pacemakers. I don’t know of any study on the health effects from repeated ESD footwear or wrist strap tests, but I would assume it is rather safe as the amount of current is rather low (< 0.1 milliamps).
If anyone is still concerned that the tester may cause a problem, you may consider reassigning them to a position that doesn’t involve handling ESD sensitive items.
Thank you for the advise, Mr. Andy!
Due to not being able to have a solid answer about active inplants (like pacemakers), our H&S have put a warning against all test stations. This means that wearers of such do not have to test, but must adhere to all other ESD requirements including wearing wrist straps/cords footwear etc.
Hi Folks,
I had been asked many times in my site about such things. My answer is any time the same. There is no current to take consideration. Why? Many testers are limited to twenty few volts as source. But even 200V goes by resistance a lowest as possible for ESD shoes (means 750 ohms), we can calculate the current as less than 0.3 milliamps (2.7 E-4 amps). It is absolutely safe, no feeling of effect. But when it is real 20V, current is 0.03 milliamps. As usual we use shoes starts from 1 Meg ohm up to 30 Meg ohms. Current in real world it is from 20 microamps to 0.7 microamps. (To say easy milli means E-3, but micro E-6).
For example when somebody touches batery 9V with finger (resistance ca. 1 kilo ohm), the current is 9 milliamps. Say anybody who can feel something during this experiment and how it affects health.
And from second point this current cannot penetrate into the body, current is only onto human skin. Because it is not altermating current, it is directional current. That is physics, nothing more.
In my opinion pregnant ladies are absolutely safe, the implantend persons the same. For pacemaker magnetic fields make the problem and people should be worned directly in such cases.
BTW. It is good issue to consider shoes/straps testing onto specified Working Group in ESDA in my opinion, to avoid a lot of human worries. Is not it?