Colorful, cute and the perfect way to say, \u201cI love you.\u201d That\u2019s how most people see Valentine\u2019s Day helium-filled balloons. But that seemingly harmless gift has hidden electrical dangers that could lead to power outages.<\/p>\n
The coating on metallic balloons conducts electricity, which can cause a short circuit or power surge if it touches a power line. Just last year alone, metallic balloons caused 500+ outages in Southern California Edison\u2019s service area as they floated into electrical lines<\/a> and equipment \u2014 impacting more than 800,000 customers.<\/p>\n Balloon pollution is also a significant environmental issue<\/a> in California, with thousands of metallic and latex balloons littering coastlines and causing power outages<\/a> annually. These balloons never break down and can travel thousands of miles, eventually reaching even remote areas. <\/p>\n Following safety best practices<\/a> can help reduce the impact of this problem, even as we experience the joy and romance these balloons bring into our lives. With a total statewide ban<\/a> on balloons made of electrically conductive material coming in 2031, every little bit of conscious effort helps to stem a widespread problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colorful, cute and the perfect way to say, \u201cI love you.\u201d That\u2019s how most people see Valentine\u2019s Day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[114,85,46,147166,17723,145227],"class_list":{"0":"post-288577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-metallic-balloon-safety","12":"tag-public-safety","13":"tag-valentine39s-day"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}