# Released helium ballons - really killers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 27, 2008, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/released-helium-ballons-really-killers/447070 "2008-04-27T12:02:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eric\_Halfabee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Eric\_Halfabee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric_Halfabee)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2008, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/released-helium-ballons-really-killers/447070/1 "2008-04-27T12:02:23Z")
Every so often, there’ll be a local event where people release helium ballons. Invariably, there’ll be a letter to the editor about how dangerous this is to some poor unsuspecting animal who might eat it and die. However, I’ve never seen any real reports on this. I’m not advocating the random killing of animals. but is this just an urban legend or is there some hard data to support this? This also applies to six-pack rings, I guess. Googling does not turn up anything either. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2008, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/released-helium-ballons-really-killers/447070/2 "2008-04-27T14:18:04Z")
I can’t speak to the danger-to-animals aspect, but what goes up must come down. I get annoyed when I find balloons littering my beach or yard with their deflated carcasses. Don’t know much about ballons, though. > [@](#): > > Released balloons can land almost anywhere, including on nature preserves or other areas where they pose a serious hazard to animals through ingestion or entanglement. Unfortunatly, no one really has the power to stop this because little kids let go of the things all the time. Latex balloons are especially dangerous to sea creatures because latex retains its elasticity for 12 months or more when exposed to sea water rather than air.[5] Because of the harm to wildlife and the effect of litter on the environment, some jurisdictions even legislate to control mass balloon releases. From [Balloon - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloon) ---
**Author:** ![Eric\_Halfabee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Eric\_Halfabee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric_Halfabee)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2008, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/released-helium-ballons-really-killers/447070/3 "2008-04-27T14:20:45Z")
[QUOTE=Musicat] I can’t speak to the danger-to-animals aspect, but what goes up must come down. I get annoyed when I find balloons littering my beach or yard with their deflated carcasses. Don’t know much about ballons, though. [/QUOTE] I understand that an animal could be injured/killed, but does anybody have any solid numbers? ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2008, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/released-helium-ballons-really-killers/447070/4 "2008-04-27T14:24:29Z")
Animal protection services certainly say so. They base that on [anecdotical](http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/catchfish.asp) evidence of [many](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.schooltv.nl/mmbase/images/589107&imgrefurl=http://www.schooltv.nl/nudn/article.jsp%3Fart%3D240072&h=138&w=200&sz=13&hl=nl&start=7&um=1&tbnid=prPcENbgPfOQsM:&tbnh=72&tbnw=104&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddieren%2Bafval%2Bdood%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dnl%26client%3Dopera%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DG) , many animals (mainly water fowls and other aquatic animals) found dead, choked on, or trapped on a piece of balloon, rubber or any other shard of plastic bag. It is entirely likely, given what ecologists know about feeding habits, that such shards look like pieces of waterplants or some other yummy thing to waterfowl, and they ingest them, causing all sorts of bowel obstructions leading to the animals death. The problem with getting hard data about the actual danger of balloons ending up in nature, will be apparent if you think about it. How are you going to test how, exactly, dangerous ballons are, and how likely a ballon is to inconvenience, or kill, an animal? How would a scientific test to find that out be set up, and who would pay for such a test? There is some more data about how plastics (and that may or may not apply to rubber) behave when they break down. Plastic just won’t break down biologically on its own. So whatever the danger a single shard of balloon rubber may pose to animals, keep in mind that it has several 100 years (estimates are about 450 years) to do its damage, again and again. Kill an animal, animal rots, shard gets released again, rinse, repeat. At first it may choke animals because of its sheer size. And after decades and decades of breaking down into smaller parts, it does its damage in other ways. [This thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=454700)describes the MASSIVE amount of plastic shards that end up in the ocean (think a vortex of plastic soup estimated the size of Texas) and links to studies about what happens if the small shards of plastic end up in the food chain. So, all in all, the risk of endangering animals by letting balloons fly wild may not be that great, on a case by case basis. But it is certainly not imaginary. And why add to an existing problem? Sure, it is fun, but do we really NEED to let balloons fly, just for decorative purposes? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2008, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/released-helium-ballons-really-killers/447070/5 "2008-04-27T14:27:30Z")
[QUOTE=Eric Halfabee] I understand that an animal could be injured/killed, but does anybody have any solid numbers? [/QUOTE] Haven’t found any yet. Just how reliable could it be? But this link has some more info on the subject: > **[Clean Virginia Waterways](https://www.cleanvirginiawaterways.org/)** BTW, I found those links with a google search on “balloons hazard animal” (without the quotes). Google is amazingly good at finding what you want if you put enough clues in the search terms. It also heps to spel it rite!