ABSTRACT
I. THE HAZARDS A. Basic Phenomena Materials are electrically neutral if charge carriers of both positive and negative sign in equal quantities are distributed uniformly. Any disintegra tion of this neutral state, any local accumulation of unipolar particles, can result in electrostatic charging. Almost all of processes (both physical and chemical) in industry and in everyday life can cause electrostatic charging (see Chaps. 2-5), and depending on the circumstances more or less charge will remain on the materials. Charging in industrial electrostatics is always determined by two simultaneous phenomena:
1. Charge separation and accumulation 2. Charge dissipation or elimination
The level of resultant charging is determined by the ratio or the condition of equilibrium of these phenomena.
