To support a ban on Chinese Lanterns

[Myleetlepony]

www.nfuonline.com/Regions/East-Anglia/News/Fight-continues-against-lantern-menace/
They have got to be one of the most stupid ideas around at the moment. I've written to two popular local wedding venues that allows them to be set off, highlighting the NFU campaign and asking them to consider banning them. Waiting for replies. However, I think they need to be banned from sale completely.
If this wire got around an animal's leg it wouldn't break, it would sever skin, flesh and tendon. So it was terrifying to find one in my ponies' field last weekend. Not to mention the impact if parts of the lantern were eaten. Or if they get into hay or feed. Or if they landed while still alight... Or imagine a cat or dog getting tangled in the debris...
So, could the Bridezillas on here bear this in mind when they make plans for their happy day please?

They can indeed cause lots of damage. All it took is a few dry days mixed with old wooden building, loose hay/straw scatterd about along comes little innocent looking lantern that lands on barrow full of shit straw waiting right next to said building to go to muck heap the next day and WHOOSH before u know it the whole bloody buildings alight!!

cupcakes question i'm pretty sure was rhetorical

ccpccp Minister for ponies?

How warm and caring you are towards your fellow humans.

One of our local farmers has lost a barn full of hay in a fire. It can't be proved that it was set off by one of the chinese lanterns set off from a local public place that evening, but it's quite a coincidence. That represents a huge loss of income to the farmer, it's devastating.
I'm not for banning fun, I'm hoping that this thread will open some eyes to the implications of what seems at first to be a nice, pretty way to mark a special event. I think we can do as many dangerous things as we like, but not if there is a great risk to others. How can anyone who reads about this happily join in lighting maybe 100 of these lanterns, say at a wedding, and watching them sail off into the night sky?

Anyone who cares enough to understand how serious this is, I've done a quick trawl and found some more reading.
www.arabianlines.com/forum1/topic_new.asp?TOPIC_ID=42736
www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=380922&highlight=chinese+lantern
www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/8307531.Farmer_counts_cost_of_Chinese_lantern_blaze/
ccpccp - Minister for Ponies - what a great idea. If you think this thread is just about potential injury to ponies then maybe you might think again.

I will admit I have one in my cupboard but will never use it now,as I think after seeing them be used new year,weddings etc thought that they are very dangerous and did not realise the implications of the damage they can cause.

Some people in the tent next to ours, at a festival I went to in the summer, sent one off - in a field full of tents, fgs! [hhm] Can't get more stupid than that! (plus they were banned from the festival to begin with)

I mean , ahem

FGS DG, that was madness! The problem is, as long as they can be purchased they will be let loose by idiots. Even the wire-free ones are not safe, because they aren't anchored in one place, so nobody can control where they will end up. Even when they aren't let loose by idiots, there can never be a guarantee that they won't land in a field and destroy someone's income, or on a thatched cottage and do even worse.

I dont think its just about Ponies Myleetlepony, but I do think you are lending a bit too much weight to the pony risk factor.

A burnt out lantern in a paddock isnt justification for banning somthing that most of the UK population enjoy.

Farmers and barns? Well how often does it really happen? Why arent the fire brigade shouting about it? Farm buildings make up a tiny fraction of total farmland, and farmland is, say, 90% of all land in the UK? There are some pretty unlucky farmers out there to get so many lantern strikes.

Anyway - I thought farms relied on 'fires' to replace all their old buildings

Early this summer a local event set a load off, directly over the large forest area where there hadnt been any rain for about two months. Apparently a number of local people couldnt sleep as imagined fires starting. Presume they didnt start a fire but they so easily could have.

YANBU - they need banning.

ccpccp If you took the time to read the links, you would see that the Fire Brigade are indeed "shouting about it". If you can't be bothered to read the links then just do some googling. If you think I'm leaning too much to the pony risk factor then you probably haven't read the whole thread either, but obviously I'm going to mention it, having found one of the bloody things in the middle of my field.

You know what's great about this thread? It's made a lot of people think twice about these naked flames being sent up into the air. That's really something I wanted to acheive. The more some pour scorn on this, the longer the thread will stay in the view of mumsnetters, who are entirely welcome to read (including the links if they have time) and make up their own minds. If I persuade even a few people away from having these mass firestarting events at their weddings, I'll have got somewhere.

I will not say what i want to about ccpccp just said as its actualy made me behond belief and i will prob say somthing i shouldnt. But I hardly think loosing thousands of pounds worth of barn and machinery (some irriplaceable heirlooms) is a laughing matter. Neither is standing watching and wandering whether you are witnessing your livelyhood about to go up in flames. Or trying to get animals that are squeeling, shaking, throwing themselves against the walls in fright to saftey because there 'home' is right next to the burning barn and could also go up at any minute.

I support those on here who would like these banned. During the hot weather back in June, one landed on our street, very near our garden. Fortunately our neighbour saw it and was able to deal safely with it, but it could easily have landed on our washing, on our dry garden, or on our roof, with horrifying results. Fire brigades are campaigning about them, and anyone who is coastal will also know hte RNLI have had problems/issues with them. We had no idea who the loon was who launched the one we found - but would cheerfully like to give them a clue by four.

CP whatever the rest of your initials are, what a fucking condescending post with no thought or real understanding about farming, no they don't fucking well want their barns to burn down and kill livestock/lose fodder for the animals. How crass and stupid can you get, and gee qhizz, no not everyone in a village that is predominantly thatched wants these things flying over them and no the local fire brigade which is made up of volunteers has enough to do without them.

YANBU.

ignore him.
he is a habitual winder-up; see various other MN threads.

but at least the argument is keeping it bumped.

so sorry to hear about your barn Mybootsaremuddy.

Oh - these are used widely, I think, by bereaved mothers..

Like setting off 4 lanterns for your dead child's 4th birthday....

I think people also use them to commemorate the date of death.

I have to own that we let off 4 pink balloons to mark DD's 4th b'day - she died about 10 weeks before it. I didn't really think of it as littering tbh. Her friend released some and I did the others - she thougth she was sending them to DD - and alhtough I know she was (literally) not, I wouldn't begrude picking up a piece of "litter" "dropped" in such cirucmstances for anybody.

I didn't realise there was a debate about chinese lanterns being dangerous - I also have some in the cupboard, purchased for DD's date of death. They seem to have copious instructions about when it is safe to release them, and my impression is that they would burn out in the sky before comign down. I appreciate that may be misleading as they are obvioulsy the manufacturer's instructions.

The other day there was a thread about people hating fireworks... can't help but wonder if everyone needs better stuff to moan about....

They cause serious problems around here, a maritime area, because they do resemble distress flares.

Please don't set them off.

They're really dangerous, even in urban areas where they can start a fire.

there not advised round here due to being on flight paths

Never brought one though had been thinking about it but after reading this i wont be buying

YANBU the only one that's being unreasonable on this thread is ccpccp who is truly to be pitied.

As you say Myleetlepony, I think this thread is great for making people aware, as at a first glance you wouldn't really think about the consequences. At the beginning of the summer, DH (intelligent, caring, sensible man, not barn-burning, inconsiderate idiot) found some on the internet, saying, "wow look at these, we could get some for camping/festival/beach this summer - they are really cheap and look fun". It was only because I had read an article in the news literally a week before that I knew quite how bad they were and told him.

I'm very sorry to hear about your DD SassySusan, I think it's lovely to find a way to mark her date of death. All I can do is beg that you find some other way than using a chinese lantern, if they all burnt out before landing it would be good but they don't. And when they land they aren't just a bit of litter, wire or bamboo, they are both potentially lethal to animals.
Some may see this as moaning, but I think you moan about trivia, like people who don't look after their personal hygiene. I'm not moaning, I've started the thread to present some facts and encourage some re-thinks. I'm hoping people will spread the word.
Cpwhateverhis name is, well, he/she's great, because every time he/she posts the thread stays up. Every time something inflammatory is said, people think about the problem and comment. We need more cpwotsits.

well I feel like a fucking cunt now

and I'm going to be a twat and say
is it any better that mine land in the sea?

excpet the one that landed in my tree and just burnt till it went out and did nothing

I agree, they should be banned. Sure they look beautiful, and they are a lovely way to remember someone on the anniversary of their death, but one landed on the roof of my shed and had I not intervened, the result could have been disastrous (3 roasted rabbits, lots of damage and potential to spread to the house next door).
MLP - I hadnt thought of the hazard from the wire, but can only imagine the damage it could do, a friends horse had its leg almost severed at the hock after getting trapped in stock fencing left in the bottom of a ditch, she found it when she came home from work, it had been standing there for hours in shock and agony on 3 legs, unable to move.
Thankfully the vet was there within half an hour to put it to sleep. Bloody horrific.