State panel backs ban on mylar balloons
The California measure is aimed at halting power outages caused by errant balloons that are costly to business.
SACRAMENTO -- Birthday gift or guided missile? Mylar balloons bring smiles to partygoers and other revelers, but power companies say they're a bane to utility workers when the glittery orbs end up tangled in electricity lines.
So on Tuesday, a legislative panel voted to support a ban on sales of metallic, helium-filled balloons beginning in 2010.
"When these metallic or mylar balloons get trapped in power lines, they can do a lot of damage -- not just to power lines but to surrounding businesses that lose power," Sen. Jack Scott (D-Altadena) told the state Senate Public Safety Committee.
Scott said he introduced the ban, in SB 1499, at the request of Burbank officials concerned that businesses -- including major movie studios -- were losing power too frequently because of balloon-triggered outages.
Blackouts can cost businesses $220,000 or more a minute, depending on the extent to which industrial production and computers are involved, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, an industry group.
Mylar balloons have caused 63 outages in Burbank since 1993, representing the third-largest cause of blackouts, city officials said.
Barry Broad is battling the balloon ban, which still faces several legislative hurdles. He represents a group of balloon industry firms called the Balloon Council, and says the proposed law is another overreaction by state government to a problem that can be addressed with less drastic results.
"It's sort of like trying to kill an ant with an atom bomb," Broad said.
He said current law requires weights on balloons and said the solution may be to do more education of the public and balloon sellers about the danger, he said.
"Before you set about to criminalize an activity common at birthday parties and anniversaries, you ought to consider a more restrained way to deal with the issue," Broad said.
patrick.mcgreevy@ latimes.com
