I'm in the process of digitizing 30 years of film photos. They're mostly family photos, shot with my trusty Canon AE-1. I'm using an Epson V600 with ANR inserts to scan negatives and have been getting good results, except that dust issues had really slowed down the process.
On a hunch, I bought an
anti-static mat like those used for working on electronics, to combat static buildup and reduce dust being attracted to the negatives. It was ~$20 for that or a similar price for an antistatic cloth. I want to share that the mat works great. I set it up near the scanner and use it to spread out/inspect the negatives. I also keep my cotton cloves, Giottos blower and cleaning cloths on it to diminish static buildup in those as well.
Much less dust seems to end up on the negatives, and what little is there is easily blown off.