Static electricity pulled the rubber mat right off the Turntable!

Aluminum is quite commonly used either alone or in concert with other metals to build turntable platters.  I would guess that the majority of platters have some aluminum in them.  Therefore, I am trying to figure out why some of you guys believe that the VPI aluminum platter is particularly prone to static electric build-up.  Moreover, isn't the static charge most often present at the interface between the mat and the LP itself? It is and always has been so at my house, in my system.

Now take off all your clothes.
i know it’s a bit awkward to do it for every LP.

Nick, do you, or does the OP, have a wool carpet underfoot?  Leather-soled shoes?  Very often, the static charge happens because of what the user brings up to the turntable (what he or she is standing on, what shoes he or she is wearing) during the changing of an LP. Like you, I'd use the zerostat way before I would use the Gruv Glide, based on chayro's description of how the stylus must clean it off an LP.

I guess my point was that even if the 0P is successful at reducing the humidity from 60-65% ambient to 45% in his house, 45% humidity is not particularly low. Certainly not low enough to account for the massive problem with static electricity.

I would not feel comfortable about using anything on my LP is that I was expecting to be “removed by the cartridge after one or two plays”. Or similar words to that effect. There are certainly many other options that come before that seemingly dangerous one. Who wants the gunk on the stylist tip?

Furthermore static electric charge build up is most commonly associated with a dry, low humidity environment. So there may be something else going on in the environment to cause such a huge amount of static buildup.