Your birthday balloons might just lead to death-days for marine turtles
Beautiful but deadly (Pixabay, 2019)
Deflated balloon littering (P. J. Jones)
When balloons are released, they get scattered everywhere, from seeing them randomly plastered on buildings to floating in the middle of the vast seas. Many of times, organisers of such events do not cater for cleanups, resulting in deflated balloons waiting out their time to decompose. This leads to grave consequences as they clog up our ecosystems and cause harm to marine life, especially for turtles!
"Now which will you choose; the blue pill or the red pill?" (R. Mark, 2018)
The consumption of balloon fragments has long-lasting consequences on turtles such as:
1. Intestinal blockage; this blocks their waste and digestive receptacles and prevents digestion from occurring, sometimes even blocking nutrients from being absorbed due to the latex lining their digestive tracts
2. Release of toxic chemicals; latex balloons contains phthalates, a hormone-disrupting chemical that can cause eggshell thinning, tissue damage and aberrant behaviour when the chemical builds up within their tissues
3. Reduce in hunger sensation; balloons cannot be ingested, so they remain in the digestive systems of turtles for a long time, this causes them to believe that they are full and eat less, resulting in nutrition deficiency
The poor turtle didn't listen when Mother warned him to not ingest "Junk Food"
(R. Mark, 2018)
4. Blocking of bodily functions; sometimes balloons don't get fully ingested. Surveyors have seen latex protruding out of reproductive and respiratory orifices, preventing them from mating or breathing properly. This might even lead to suffocation!
"But aren't latex balloons degradable? Doesn't that mean its good for the environment?" Yes, latex balloons are degradable and are much more environmentally friendly than plastic balloons. However, latex balloons still require at least 12 months before they can fully degrade, which is more than enough time to cause harm to the environment. Moreover, the more colouring or additives used to make the balloons, the longer it will take for the latex to decompose. These additional chemicals will have even more consequences, and not just on the creatures that ingest it, but on environment as a whole.
Let us stop balloon releases and our usage of balloons. It has gotten to a point where even countries are banning balloon releases altogether, signalling that it is time for change to happen. There are so many more alternatives that can be used to celebrate events without horrendous impacts on marine life. These alternatives will be up in another post coming soon. In the meantime, check out the blogs listed in the side bar for more insights into this issue!
References
P. J. Jones. Discarded deflated plastic balloon left on the side of a country lane [Online Image]. Retrieved from https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/discarded-deflated-plastic-balloon-left-on-1033927564?irgwc=1&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=Hans%20Braxmeier%20und%20Simon%20Steinberger%20GbR&utm_source=44814&utm_term=https%3A%2F%2Fpixabay.com%2Fimages%2Fsearch%2Fdeflated%2520balloons%2F
Pixabay. (2019). White and Red Plastic Heart Balloon on Sky during Daytime [Online Image]. Retrieved from https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-and-red-plastic-heart-balloon-on-sky-during-daytime-33479/
R. Mark. (2018). Confusion [Scanned Image]
R. Mark. (2018) Ingested trash within a turtle [Scanned Image]
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