Electrostatic Discharge or ESD is a surge of electricity from one object to another. This can occur when a higher charged object nears or makes contact with a lower charged object, thus creating a statically charged surge.
Friction can cause static electricity to build up in an object and transfer it to another object. Some electronics components are highly sensitive to ESD and are damaged easily by this.
There are a couple of simple ways to help prevent ESD from happening.
These are just a few examples to becoming ESD safe. Depending on your needs or process, you can find the right combination that works for you. For the larger scale operations or higher ESD potential situations, you can create a whole ESD safe lab complete with ESD storage, equipment and gear to suit any and all ESD safe productions.