05/28/2026
Did you know that balloons can be hazardous? Notably, ingestion of balloon fragments can cause starvation and internal injuries in animals like sea turtles and birds that mistake them for food. Entanglements also pose a threat, as wildlife can become trapped by balloon ribbons and rendered unable to eat or defend themselves. Furthermore, testing has revealed that numerous consumer balloon packs contain carcinogenic chemical compounds in excess of safe toy limits. The environmental impact of released balloons is also significant, as they drift into oceans and forests, where wildlife mistakes them for food, leading to digestive tract blockages and starvation. In Rhode Island, it is illegal to intentionally release, or organize the simultaneous release of, 10 or more balloons. Town-specific rules can be stricter than the state law. For example, New Shoreham (Block Island) enforces a total ban on the sale, use, and distribution of all balloons on the island. Just one released is a negative impact. The last picture shows a piece of plastic I retrieved near this balloon, and it appears to have been bitten thousands of times. No Butts about it, this is just one reason why we contribute.