WSJ piece on Calif. / Helium-Filled Foil Balloons / electric power lines being "shorted out" .............................
July 15, 2008
California Targets New Menace: Helium-Filled Foil Balloons
State Senate Sees Danger and Cracks Down, But Party Planners Fight Back; the $100 Fine
By AMY KAUFMAN
California state Sen. Jack Scott says he didn't intend to "be a party pooper." It's just that helium-filled foil balloons -- like those found at hospital gift shops and office parties -- are dangerous. They float into electric lines and cause power outages, more than 800 in California last year, utilities say.
He drafted a bill to ban foil balloons; it sailed through the state Senate and now awaits a vote in the Assembly.
He didn't expect the issue to blow up the way it did.
Last month, at a pro-balloon rally in a Pasadena park, protesters cheered as a group of children pounced on an effigy of Mr. Scott -- made entirely of balloons.
"There's a leg, get that leg!" shouted John Kobylt, a radio talk-show host who broadcast the protest live. "Look what's left of him!" he said, holding up a sagging cluster of punctured latex. "That's what happens when you ban our balloons."
Wedding planners, party organizers and balloon artists all rallied to the cause. The industry body, the Balloon Council, set up a Web site -- www.savetheballoons.com -- that urges people to contact their state representatives. Members began a grass-roots campaign to garner support.
"My first reaction to this was, 'You've got to be kidding. Is this a joke?'" recalled Barry Broad, the lobbyist they hired to spearhead the pro-balloon effort. "Balloons and ice-cream cones are associated with the lighthearted parts of life, and now suddenly they have this evil-twin side?"
Others complained that balloon-sellers were an easy mark for legislators. "To them, we're just the balloon people. We've got the big noses and the floppy shoes," said Treb Heining, a balloon artist who began his career at 15 selling balloons at Disneyland and has since created installations for the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards. "We're the Rodney Dangerfield of the professional-events services."
Terri Adishian, the vice president of Balloon Wholesalers International in Fresno, recently traveled to Sacramento to press her case with state assemblymen. She brought a bouquet of foil balloons filled with air instead of helium that dragged on the ground to emphasize her point. "Balloons are magical because they float," she said.
She also made the case that balloons are big business in California. There are 45 million foil balloons sold in the state a year, selling on average for just over $2 a pop. When combined with floral arrangements or teddy-bear gifts, the gross hits $900 million. The state would be losing $80 million a year in sales tax if the ban goes through, the Balloon Council claims.
The pro-balloon people are hoping that even if the bill does pass, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will veto it. At a recent news conference, the governor commented that he couldn't get the legislature to work on the now-overdue state budget. A member of the audience joked that they'd been too busy outlawing balloons.
"Oh yes, a very important law," mocked Gov. Schwarzenegger. "Let's outlaw the balloons. Let's punish the people again."
Mr. Scott, however, insists balloons pose a real danger and must be stopped no matter how unpopular the move may be. "It's not my intention to ruin birthday parties, but children will inevitably let these balloons go up into the air and that's a threat.
In California, the balloon industry has come under regulatory scrutiny before. In 1990, it became the only state to pass a law requiring that helium-filled foil balloons be sold with a weight affixed to them, such as a bag of chocolates or a coffee mug. Under Mr. Scott's bill, someone selling a helium-filled foil balloon on a string could be fined $100.
To cause a power outage, a metallic foil balloon must come in contact with two power lines at once. Typically, the balloon then burns and melts onto the power line. That usually causes a quick, inconsequential blip that might cause a clock radio to flash, though blackouts lasting for hours are also possible, according to Greg Simay, assistant general manager at Burbank Water & Power. Removing the balloons is potentially dangerous for the workers involved.
"They have to avoid touching the live line while trying to free a tangled balloon or scrape off melted balloons while in bucket trucks with high winds," said Scott Wetch, the legislative representative for the California Coalition of Utility Employees. He couldn't cite any examples of injuries associated with balloon removal.
Environmentalists say the balloons sometimes float out to sea, where they are ingested by marine animals that later die from gastrointestinal blockages. In 1985, Sheila Dean, co-director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, and her husband discovered a dead whale on New Jersey's coast. "When we opened it up, we found it had swallowed one of those large heart-shaped foil balloons," said Ms. Dean.
Switching from metallicized nylon to latex balloons, the professionals say, just won't do. "Foil adds the pièce de résistance onto our decorations," said Amanda Armstrong, a Mission Viejo event planner. "Latex doesn't pop enough for our clients. Everybody wants something high-end and glitzy."
Some of Mr. Scott's colleagues have had some balloon mishaps, and have rallied to his cause. State Sen. Abel Maldonado, a Republican from Santa Cruz, flies his own plane to Sacramento. Once, he said, "I actually hit a pack of balloons and I thought it was the end of me."
Mr. Broad, the balloon lobbyist, has been trying to negotiate a compromise with legislators that might include larger warning tags on balloons and the funding of scientific research to develop materials that don't conduct electricity. It might also include a provision to affix a more permanent weight to helium-filled foil balloons.
Talks are continuing, and the balloon lobby believes a solution might be close at hand. "If somebody comes up with a magical solution, I still remain open to compromise," said Mr. Scott. If no deal is reached, the bill could face a final vote in the Assembly next month.
That worries people like Gary Felix, an artist who creates foil-balloon kits for schoolchildren to assemble. "Everything drops when you let go of it, except a balloon," he said. "It's ethereal, and if you manage to break it open and breathe it in, you talk like Donald Duck."
Write to Amy Kaufman at amy.kaufman@wsj.com
Copyright © 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
