letting balloons off in the air?

[2shoes]

can anyone tell me if this is bad for the enviroment please

It is because the balloons don't degrade.

do they ever get in the way of airplanes?

they do degreade. There is an interesting article here

The main risk seems to be to wildlife.

Unless you filled it completely with helium it wouldnt even reach the height of a small plane. And it wouldnt cause a problem even if it did.

yeah, but, sometimes they let of thousands in one go...

*off

yeah but they aren't filled with much helium are they, so they could only reach about a couple thousand feet in height before they would burst.

whatabout those small planes? Some fly very low...

should put otu a shout for martianbishop, she's probably the one to ask, because I've jsut read that some balloons might rise to 28,000 feet, which I would have thought was impossible.

I nto sure why I'm getting so interested now, but I'm wondering now if a small single seater plane flew into a load of balloons what would happen! Apparently 'One pilot said he didn't believe any balloon could make it past his spinning prop and into the airplane engine without disintegrating harmlessly; and he didn't feel a balloon would cause a big jet engine much trouble either if it were somehow sucked into the engine' but who knows.

But they do end up as litter, don't they? In ponds, rivers, lakes, the sea, pavements etc.

Apparantly you cn get biodegradable ones.

I'm afraid it is, 2shoes. Here is the Marine Conservation Society's page on the issue.

Oh no - DS did this twice recently with helium filled balloons, he was sending them up to his Nan and Great-Grandma in heaven who had passed away recently.

i have wondered about this for a while. don't want to put the reason (as sad and might cause offence)

My mum did a balloon relase on the flight path to Birmimgham airport and air traffic control sad it was no problem.

They have just released a load of balloons on the tv on Spendaholics...to represent how much a woman spends on makeup....

I don't think they can be very good for the environment really...

We find full and deflated balloons in our fields quite often. It really pisses me off. It's litter and it's a danger to my small DCs and our animals.

Balloon releases should be banned. Sorry if this sounds a bit grumpy! But I don't throw my rubbish into other peoples gardens.