"Toss your graduation cap. Not balloons."
"Celebrate safely. Please secure your balloons so they don't fly away."
As graduation season is in full swing across U.S. universities, regions throughout the country have declared war on balloons. Power companies are inserting balloon warning notices in May electricity bill envelopes, and local governments are on high alert to prevent balloon-related accidents. There is no issue of leaflet balloons being launched toward North Korea, as occasionally happens in Korea, so why is the balloon problem being raised?
The reason balloon alerts have been issued across the United States is that balloons can get caught on utility poles and power lines, disrupting electricity supply or, in the worst case, causing fires. Metallic balloons in particular are a major nuisance. Also known as Mylar or foil balloons, they are made of plastic film coated with aluminum to create a thin, shiny effect. They are the helium balloons commonly used at parties or amusement parks. Because they are filled with helium gas instead of air, they float well rather than sinking like ordinary balloons. However, since their surface is covered with conductive material, they can cause accidents when they get caught on power lines.
Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), California's largest utility, urged people on the 14th not to release balloons at graduation events. According to PG&E, metallic balloons coming into contact with power lines have caused more than 100 outages in its service territory so far this year, affecting more than 46,000 customers. "Graduation season should be a time for celebrating students, not causing power outages," Ron Richardson, PG&E's vice president of electric distribution operations, said. "We urge people to securely tie metallic balloons to weights and pay attention to safety."
Arizona's Salt River Project (SRP) also held a demonstration on the 21st to show what kind of damage occurs when balloons get caught on power lines. SRP said balloon-related outages occurred at least once a month last year. SRP warned that balloons can cause power outages affecting thousands of residents, urging people not to release balloons into the sky, to secure them with strings or weights, and to deflate them before disposal.
A wildfire that broke out in Brantley County, Georgia last month was a representative case showing the dangers of balloons. At a press conference on the 24th of last month, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp explained that the cause of the wildfire was a balloon caught on a high-voltage power line. The investigation found that an aluminum balloon used at a child's birthday party touched the high-voltage line and caused a short circuit, which combined with the dry climate and drought to ignite a fire. A state of emergency was declared in southern Georgia, and the deployment of the Georgia Forestry Commission and the National Guard was ordered, marking it as one of the worst wildfires in the state's history.
Because the United States covers a vast area, wooden utility poles and power lines are still easily visible even in major cities like San Francisco. According to a report published in September 2024 by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the proportion of underground distribution lines among all U.S. distribution lines rose only 2 percentage points, from 18% in 2009 to 20% in 2023. The underground burial rate for high-voltage lines of 200 kilovolts (kV) or above was extremely low at just 0.5% as of 2009.
In the past, local governments in Korea also held events to release balloons or sky lanterns to celebrate the New Year, but most have disappeared as concerns were raised about damage to wildlife and environmental pollution. As high-density development progressed in densely populated major cities such as Seoul, the burying of power lines underground also advanced. According to Korea Electric Power Corporation, the underground burial rate as of 2024 averaged 21.7% nationwide. Among major cities, Seoul ranked first at 62.8%, followed by Daejeon (57.3%), Sejong (49.8%), Incheon (48.5%), and Busan (45.7%).
