From: AeraDeco@aol.com
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 07:28:42 EDT
Subject: Re: balloons & the enviroment
To: singvalentine@hotmail.com, balloondeco@balloonhq.com

After reviewing that article from the Ohio EPA, there were a few comments I'd 
like to address. First of all, my girlfriend (who happens to work for the EPA 
as an auditor) informed me that while it has a national office, the EPA is 
mostly regulated on state levels, so remember that specific rules apply to 
different areas of the country.

OK,....

(1) The Ohio EPA article only lists 2 examples of how "destructive" balloon 
launches can be, and both of them are cited from the mid 1980's. It seems to 
me that if this were such dramatic issue, they would have more recent cases 
to bring up.

(2) I find it highly unlikely that either example listed in this article were 
from balloon launches. In the case of the sperm whale, they found a MYLAR 
balloon in his stomach (I don't know about the rest of you, but I never 
launch mylar balloons. Besides laws forbidding it, they're not biodegradable) 
In the other case, a sea turtle had become entangled in the 3' ribbon from a 
popped balloon. How many of us do balloon launches with 3' ribbons? I'm 
willing to bet both of these cases were simply a balloon that had gotten away 
from a small child, and NOT from a launch. (I do know, however, that some 
decorators use balloons with ribbon on them for funeral launches, but they 
should never be that long.)

(3) Everything in this article was based on theoreticals. Situations were 
cited that MIGHT occur. Until adequate research is done to back up these 
suspicions, that's all they really are...just theoreticals.

While, yes, there is always a risk to wildlife when people litter, I feel 
they don't have adequate evidence to really make this much of a fuss. It 
should be easy for Pioneer or any other large company to defend our business 
practices if this is all they have to offer.

Steve Jones
Aeration Decorations
Cincinnati, Ohio