Yes, Don't use them anywhere near a hipot tester or anything that could possibly place a high voltage/current on an object you might accidentally touch. Goes for heel or wrist straps, too. I have seen what this can do to a conductive garment... It's not pretty. Just imagine yourself inside a dissipative smock accidentally touching a high current source. The garment basically burns itself up with you inside it! As far as the need to have the smock connected to a direct path to ground (flooring, etc.), I think I would need to see empirical data proving that it makes a difference. I believe most smocks have enough surface area to essentially bleed off or dissipate ESD charges before they can do damage. I have a hard time believing that a dissipative smock with no direct ground contact becomes a miniature capacitor... Dale Ritzen Quality Manager Austin Manufacturing Services -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Dehoyos, Ramon Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 9:27 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] FW: January 2007 ESD Systems.com Newsletter Technetters: Does any body have an opinion on grounded Smocks? Ramon ________________________________ From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Banana Jack Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 2:30 AM To: Lusby, Jack R. Subject: January 2007 ESD Systems.com Newsletter Here is the latest ESD news from ESD Systems.com: http://www.ESDSystems.com/Newsletters/v10issue1.html --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------