Since 2006, delays and outages at some of the industry's largest production plants have caused a global supply shortage and price increases. In addition, helium demand has grown from non-party sectors, including industry and medicine. Among its lesser known applications, helium is used to purge the space shuttle's fuel tanks and cool the magnets during a magnetic resonance imaging procedure.
In response, Conwin Inc. has encouraged its customers to use air whenever possible. The company makes a balloon inflater that uses 40% air and 60% helium, giving balloons a lift but reducing costs.
Coming on top of rising expenses, the potential ban of helium-filled foil balloons has really gotten the industry hot.
Balloon distributors, retailers and manufacturers have coalesced to oppose the bill. Leading the bunch is the New Jersey-based Balloon Council, which created a website called SaveTheBalloons.com.
Council spokesman Pete McDonough said a coalition of more than 20,000 small businesses and unions is making phone calls to legislators and circulating petitions. McDonough estimates the foil balloon industry generates about $100 million annually in California, and that any ban on balloon distribution would deflate a thriving business community.
"We really believe it's a silly bill," McDonough said. "California is not only unique in proposing a ban on these balloons, but it's also the only state that regulates balloons."
In 1990, California began requiring weights and warning labels on all helium-filled foil balloons. Under the new legislation, businesses would be prohibited from selling or distributing such balloons.
"It's more like the balloon criminalization act," said Barry Broad, a lobbyist representing the Balloon Council in Sacramento. "I hope they don't charge too many 6-year-olds at their birthday parties."
Broad's usual clients include the Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers and Unite Here unions, which oppose the bill.
It all began when Sen. Jack Scott (D-Altadena) heard from Burbank Water and Power that about 12% of the annual power outages in Burbank were caused by metallic balloons hitting power lines.
After discovering that utilities statewide had experienced the same problem, Scott in February proposed that anyone selling a helium-filled foil balloon after 2010 be fined $100 for each violation. Foil balloons that are deflated or filled with air wouldn't be illegal.
