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Introduction
There are people who have some anxiety about the impact of promotional balloons on the environment and safety issues of printed promotional items and around the effects of working with latex. However fear is often a derivative of ignorance so becoming knowledgeable enables people to make informed choices. Where there is understanding and information, the mind does not need to fill in the empty spaces with fearful conjecture and catastrophising.
The idea of balloon safety is not really about balloons so much as the materials from which they are made. The bulk of balloons are made from latex or natural rubber which is actually a very environmentally friendly product and has been around for decades. More recently foil balloons have been produced that are made from thin non-stretch fabric which is basically metalized plastic film which does not bio-degrade like latex. This type of balloon is invariably filled with helium so that it rises up and is secured with a ribbon so that it doesn’t float away.
So what is Latex?
Balloons have been around for many years and the latex from which modern balloons are made come from the Hevea Brasiliensis tree or as many people know it, the rubber tree. These trees which grow in tropical climes, such as South East Asia, do not need to be cut down to obtain the rubber. The mature trees are tapped regularly by making a Y cut in the bark and placing a small container at the bottom of the Y to collect the milky sap which oozes from the tree. This is the basic latex from which so many different|variable|diverse} goods are made. Latex is a highly sustainable product providing work and income for people in some of the poorest countries in the world.
The management and maintenance of the rubber plantations means there is no deforestation, which helps in the issue of global warming. The trees use carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the atmosphere, which is the opposite process to industrial pollution which contributes to the significant increase in greenhouse gases. So as a basic resource it is an environmentally friendly, regenerating product.
Uses of Natural Rubber latex (NRL)
Natural Rubber latex (NRL) is used in thousands of everyday items we take for granted in our modern lifestyle. A balloon is just one of many commercial products we recognise as obviously being made from rubber. Some of the more essential items made from NRL are car, lorry, plane and bus tyres which carry us and the essential consumer products we use daily, around the world. Essential items such as underwear elastic and elastic used in fashion day wear, shoe soles, carpets, rubber bands and erasers have been in use for many decades. More recent consumer necessities come in the form of buttons in calculators and remote controls.
Balloon Publicity
Balloons races or balloon releases are a way of generating publicity at major fund raising events. A message or company logo is printed onto the balloons and then released into the sky in large numbers. This is a spectacular sight when thousands of helium filled balloons of different colours rise up into the atmosphere all together.
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