Matt,

A very good question indeed!

We have addressed this issue in full detail and I offer the following summary:
  a.. Red ballons within 3' of missletoe generate an average of .002 mA to a radius of 5.2'
  b.. Red ballons alone generate .000013 mA when in an idle state as opposed to swaying gently in a breeze when this increases to .00027 mA
  c.. Green ballons for some reason generate no properties whatsoever, our analysis revealed this was due in part to chlorophyl added to the latex, go figure????
  d.. Tinsel generates by far the highest static charge of all the christmas items we evaluated. The breakdown for tinsel is:
  e..     When worn over the head at christmas parties:    14 Amps
  f..     When hanging from production equipment:          23 Amps 
  g..     When hanging from a fake tree:                          16 Amps
  h..     "                            " real tree:                           14 Amps
When inadvertantly fabricated into a circuit board however, it can act as an     internal trace quite well, something for you designers to think about

Now the biggest danger we did identify throughout this entire evaluation process may surprise most of you, missletoe itself, when missletoe is placed near the coffee pot we detected static energy within 25' of the area up to 75 Amps, interestingly enough when the missletoe was moved to our CAM area, the number decreased to around 35 Amps and the lowest reading was when we placed the missletoe directly over our General Managers office door, there was no detectable levels of static energy.

I hope htis information helps all of you, Merry Christmas everyone, and be careful; out there.

Franklin D Asbell
Network Circuits, Inc.
Irving, Texas



disclaimer: Keep in mind I know hardly anything about ESD data and limitations. The data provided is only to be used as lighthearted banter and not actual practices, oh yeah, my lawyer asked me to include this.