Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash
Who doesn’t love balloons? I remember in my younger years, i will cry and cry just to get one of those colorful balloons.
People love those floating balloons, it seems like a party is not a party without a balloon.
But what makes those balloon floats. Floating balloons are filled with HELIUM GAS, that makes them fly or float in the air.
NOW LETS DIG DEEPER ON WHAT HELIUM IS.
Helium as we know is the second element on the periodic table. It is a colorless an odorless gas yet it has a number of uses. Helium gas is literally ‘lighter-than-air’ due to its extremely low density, which explains its most well-known use; decorative balloons.
Helium Gas is the second most abundant element in our universe.
Helium is commercially recovered from natural gas deposits, mostly from Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. And its not only used for balloons,
Helium is used in deep sea diving, airbags, cryogenics, rocket fuel, MRI machines and in areas of tech that include fiber optics and semiconductors.
5 Uses of Helium
- Balloons: As already mentioned, the most common use for helium gas is for decorative balloons. However, this has since stretched to helium for weather balloons and airships. (Fun fact: hydrogen was originally used to fill balloons but it is a highly reactive gas.)
- Medical Applications: Helium gas can be used for respiratory ailments to treat conditions such as asthma and emphysema. Liquid helium also has medical purpose as it is used as a cooling medium for magnets and process use in MRI scanners and NMR spectrometers.
- Car/Vehicles: As helium is a very unreactive element, it is used to detect leaks in car air-conditioning systems. It is also used to inflate airbags as helium can diffuse quicker than most unreactive gases.
- Barcode Scanners: Supermarkets use helium for scanning barcodes at checkouts using helium-neon gas lasers. Helium can be used for lasers because even at high temperatures, the gas will not bond or react with other elements.
- Deep-Sea Diving: An artificial atmosphere is created using 20% oxygen and 80% helium to keep divers and others who work in pressurised conditions safe. The ability to consistently monitor this artificial atmosphere is something that Analox specialises in.
I like helium balloons and I am sure all kids love them. And i used helium for my balloon decorating business. But when I’ve learned that helium is being used in science, medicine and other more important things than balloons, my point of view was changed.
Many people do not realize that helium is a non-renewable resource. And now, there is global shortage of it.
In the midst of this shortage, Party City announced that they will be closing 45 stores this year (2019). But according to the news, they are not closing due to helium shortage.
In my opinion using helium for just balloon decoration is a major waste of resources.
So for decorating I am suggesting just the air filled balloons or better yet, no balloons at all.
Besides using helium for balloons is a bit costly than with just air filled balloons.
The next time you wanted to decorate with balloon, choose not to use helium. Just filled them with air, you can do lots of style of decoration with it.
Consider the environment and save some money on your pocket.
