Can ESD-protective lab coats be used without heel straps in an ESD-protected area?
A. If the garment is an electrically groundable one, it should be electrically bonded to the wearer’s grounding system so that it will not act as a floating ground. Typically, the garment would be grounded to the body with a direct connection to a wrist strap, a conductive wrist cuff in direct contact with the skin of a grounded wearer, or a separate ground cord attached to an identified groundable point on the garment. If the garment is in direct contact with the skin of the wearer, that person also needs to be grounded, either through a wrist strap or through static control footwear (foot straps or shoes) to a grounded static control floor. If heel straps or static control shoes are not worn and there is no static control floor, then the person is not grounded. Both the proper footwear and the proper floor are needed to complete the connection from garment to body to ground. If the garment is not electrically groundable (for example, a topically treated garment), then heel straps are
