SUFFOLK CLOSEUP : The Balloon Issue

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman  

Suffolk County’s challenge to helium-filled balloons as an environmental menace began in 2005—and has continued and expanded since. Initially, the focus was on the release of more than 25 or more balloons. Then, two years ago, the Suffolk Legislature enacted a law barring the “intentional release” of even one balloon. 

Two years ago, a shift began to also consider a ban on the sale and distribution of helium-filled and other gas-filled lighter-than-air balloons. The Town of Southampton passed a law on this last month, to take effect next year. The Town of East Hampton is now drafting a comparable statute.

Meanwhile, a leading force in Suffolk in recent times in taking on balloons, East Hampton Town Trustee Susan McGraw-Keber, has been endeavoring to get a law prohibiting the release of such balloons passed on the New York State level. State lawmakers she has been working with include Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. and Senator Anthony Palumbo who have drawn up legislation.

Ms. McGraw-Keber intends to move on—following the balloon trajectory in Suffolk—to seeking a state ban on sale and distribution.

All along, there’s been resistance to the drive in Suffolk by an entity representing the balloon business, The Balloon Council, based in New Jersey. As Southampton Town considered its sale and distribution ban, Lorna O’Hara, public information director of The Balloon Council was there (on Zoom due to the pandemic) asserting that the proposed law was “misguided” and “will cause economic harm to Southampton businesses.”

Ms. McGraw-Keber’s rebuttal: “This is a pro-environment and marine and wildlife and fisheries effort.” Also, she cited the claim by bar and restaurant owners decades ago that bans on smoking in bars and restaurants would devastate their businesses. “That never happened,” she noted, “and people can eat and drink in clean air.”

The initiative started in 2005 after Suffolk Legislator Lynne Nowick of St. James received a letter from a group of elementary school students about helium-filled balloons falling into waterways and being mistaken for jellyfish by sea animals, especially turtles, that ingested them and died. The students cited a law in Connecticut banning the mass release of balloons. Ms. Nowick (now a Smithtown councilperson) introduced a bill in Suffolk to prohibit that here. The Balloon Council tried to defeat the measure. However, public officials here stood up to The Balloon Council and her bill barring the release of 25 or more balloons was passed.

In 2019, that number was reduced to zero. “One balloon released is one too many,” said the author of the new measure, Suffolk Legislator Sarah Anker of Mount Sinai, whom Ms. McGraw-Keber had met with and gotten into the issue. 

Ms. McGraw-Keber was inspired herself to get involved in the balloon issue in 2018 when Colleen Henn, then coordinator of the Eastern Long Island Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, came to a meeting of the East Hampton Trustees “and asked if we would be interested in supporting a ban on the intentional release of balloons in East Hampton. I’m a PADI certified Rescue Scuba Diver and First Responder and I see what goes on in the ocean. I immediately jumped on board. It’s a common sense effort to help eliminate balloon debris in our waterways and overall environment.”

As a member of the Education Committee on the Trustees she visits schools. She 

relates going to a science fair at the Montauk School and giving a presentation about damage caused by balloons. Students and teachers at the school sent a petition to the East Hampton Town Board calling for action. “Children understand the balloon problem well,” says Ms. McGraw-Keber. “They are the future leaders and stewards of our communities and our environment.”

Meanwhile, like the tobacco industry years ago pushing certain filter cigarettes as “safer,” The Balloon Council is now touting latex balloons over those of the plastic mylar. “Latex balloons are produced from the sap of the rubber tree. It is collected” on a “process similar to that used for collecting the sap from maple trees for syrup,” thus “a latex balloon is…100 percent biodegradable,” its website claims. https://www.theballooncouncil.org/

“That’s not true,” says Ms. McGraw-Keber. “While latex is a natural product, once it is made into a commercial product it’s not biodegradable. It’s as bad as mylar which is made from petroleum, a fossil fuel.”

Florida-based Balloons Blow declares: “Latex balloons are not ‘biodegradable’…This is just a marketing gimmick.” It cites the addition of “chemicals, plasticizers and artificial dyes” in latex balloons. On its website—http://www.balloonsblow.org—it shows photos of latex balloons not having broken down after years. Indeed, it notes: “Latex balloons are the type most commonly found in the stomachs of dead animals.”

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.