A Word From Our Sponsors...

[BalloonBoyUK]

Found these online today, and thought they should be shared around our group, far-and-wide. They will help get rid of some of the myths regarding balloons. Feel free to share them to anyone/everyone you know.

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[BalloonBoyUK]

Re: A Word From Our Sponsors...

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[BalloonBoyUK]

Re: A Word From Our Sponsors...

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[BalloonBoyUK]

Re: A Word From Our Sponsors...

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[Slugamano]

Re: A Word From Our Sponsors...

Have you ever seen an MRI machine flying away?...

[b0f0s0f]

Re: A Word From Our Sponsors...

I don't agree with the message here. It sucks to have something you like be denounced as bad, but that's no excuse to spread false facts about it. Helium is an inert element, and can be purified easily to remove chemical impurities. It's all the same stuff. We have a helium purifier in my laboratory. There are also a huge number of uses for helium in research and industry besides MRI, like semiconductor fabrication, gas shielding, and low temperate physics. 2 million balloons sounds like a lot, but if each party has between 10-100 helium balloons, it only takes 200,000 - 20,000 parties to use that many. That might sound like a lot, but in a world with 8 billion people... Balloons also aren't pure natural latex, they're mixed with synthetics to optimize the material qualities and are definitely not very biodegradable, there have been plenty of experiments to show that it takes many years for them to become even partly degraded, and still leave a lot of material behind.

Is the volume of helium used by balloons significant compared to the industrial usage? No, not really. Using helium balloons sometimes is not the end of the world. The material used is also pretty small since their walls are so thin and it's great that it's no longer acceptable to release balloons into the environment. But I don't agree with propagandizing over it and painting it as completely harmless, especially these days when facts are always twisted to agendas. Allow issues to be complicated, nothing is all bad or all good.

[wildheart]

Re: A Word From Our Sponsors...

I agree. Those images were obviously made by a company that sells balloons/helium to get more sales. Some balloons are made with natural rubber, but others use synthetics or a mix of both. Also, just because something is made from natural ingredients, it doesn’t necessarily mean it biodegrades easily. Also discarded balloons pose a choking risk to both children and animals.

[BalloonBoyUK]

Re: A Word From Our Sponsors...

It sucks to have something you like be denounced as bad, but that's no excuse to spread false facts about it.

All the facts, list their sources.

Helium is an inert element, and can be purified easily to remove chemical impurities. It's all the same stuff. We have a helium purifier in my laboratory.

That may be true, but many people want to ban helium for balloon usage, in full, and they will often state that it's wasteful. This isn't entirely true. The helium used for balloons, is impurer than the helium used for MRI scanners. Thus, it's "waste helium". The fact that impure helium can be purified, is not the issue. It's whether it's cost effective for companies to do that, or just let balloon companies use it instead. I can't say either way, which option is best, but to simply say helium can be purified as if to imply that that ends the debate, is a little unfair. Yes, it can be done, but at what cost - financial and/or in terms of time? Therein, lies the nub of the issue.

Balloons also aren't pure natural latex, they're mixed with synthetics to optimize the material qualities and are definitely not very biodegradable, there have been plenty of experiments to show that it takes many years for them to become even partly degraded, and still leave a lot of material behind.

Some balloons are, but the ones made by Qualatex, Bel-Bal, Tuff-Tex, Cattex, et al, will be pure natural latex. The cheap ones you buy in toy stores will be made from rubber, and other plastics. So, again, whilst I understand that balloons do take ages to degrade, the fact that some manufacturers of high-quality balloons ARE made of natural latex, isn't therefore a lie, nor is it a fraudulent fact.

I don't agree with propagandizing over it and painting it as completely harmless, especially these days when facts are always twisted to agendas. Allow issues to be complicated, nothing is all bad or all good.

Surely, anything can be considered "propaganda", depending on who is telling it, and why, though. Any fact, can be distorted or made to sound worse/better than it is, if you have an agenda. And everyone has an agenda. The scientific community would love to ban all hellium usage for balloons, because - to them - it's wasteful. I don't think that's fair or right. So, it can be argued that they have an agenda. Well, so do balloon companies and balloon manufacturers. They don't want balloons to be demonised as all bad, when that's not the entire story.

Whilst I agree with your final statement - that issues are complex, and neither all good or all bad - there are plenty of organisations that want to demonise all helium balloon usage as bad. Which isn't right.

I don't feel that the images I posted were "propaganda" in the true sense of the word. Likewise, I had hoped that most users of the forum would be intelligent enough to realise that - anything someone posts - can be a mixture of truth and lies, and nothing is 100% accurate. I just saw these images and thought that they might prove of interest to our community - rightly or wrongly.

Nothing in any of the four images is factually inaccurate, and if you read them carefully, people will see this, as they've been worded in a very specific manner.

Nonetheless, I'm sorry that you feel it's still "propaganda".