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BALLOONS
Balloon are animal killers they float and harm both land and marine life. Most of the balloons found on the beach are blown up in the winter storms. The most amount of balloons found in one day was 37 balloons.
THE TOXIC EFFECT OF BALLOONS
Latex Balloons they said are biodegradable, but it may take up to a year for them to biodegrade. How many animals would they kill? Mylar balloons are not biodegradable.
We find balloons both latex and Mylar on a daily basis. The problem as weI see it, is not so much the latex balloons, it’s the Mylar and the ribbons, bows, string etc. that go with balloons.
Not So Fun Facts
• Dolphins, whales, turtles, and many other marine species, as well as terrestrial animals such as cows, dogs, sheep, tortoises, birds and other animals have all been hurt or killed by balloons. The animal is usually killed from the balloon blocking its digestive tract, leaving them unable to take in any more nutrients.
• Balloon look like food in particular jellyfish and are eaten by turtles, thus eventually killing them.
• It is not just the balloons, it is the string, the ribbons and the other accessories that are not biodegradable and kill animals.
• 2019 study has found that balloons are the highest-risk plastic debris item for seabirds — 32 times more likely to kill than ingesting hard plastics. Researchers looked at the cause of death of 1733 seabirds from 51 species and found that one in three of the birds had ingested marine debris.”
• 2015- A necropsy was performed and the foreign bodies were extracted from the eagle’s ventriculus. The items included: two balloons, several pieces of cardboard/paper, an aluminum soda can tab, a thumb tack, plastic particles, plastic wrapper material, and one more unidentifiable item.”
• A newly born lamb nearly died after becoming entangled with a Marks and Spencer promotional balloon. … The farmer, Richard Fulcher, managed to free the lamb and it is now back with its mother, doing well. He said: “If I hadn’t been on site at the time, the lamb would certainly have been strangled to death.”
• According to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a total of 211 power outages in California in 2007 were caused by Mylar balloons which came into contact with phone wires. The outages affected 143,000 customers of PG&E. In San Mateo County alone last year, there were 17 metallic balloon-related outages, and 10,000 PG&E customers were affected.
