It’s party season and no doubt, because people have seen it on TV and because individuals get a high-pitched squeaky voice, balloon gas (impure helium) will be inhaled from balloons.
While the inhalation of helium and other gases is often depicted in the media as harmless fun, the misuse of such substances can badly affect health and there have been many fatalities as a result. Gases can have other hazardous properties, such as extreme cold, and are stored under pressure in their cylinders. Their uncontrolled or inappropriate release or use, can quickly lead to an unsafe situation.
The gases industry is using every means possible to get the message across (particularly to those who believe gas abuse can be fun or entertaining) that the inhalation of any gas, other than air and oxygen, can cause death by asphyxiation. Every breath can cause unconsciousness – or worse.
What Is Balloon Gas (Impure Helium)?
Many people believe helium to be harmless, yet helium is an inert non-toxic gas that displaces oxygen and carbon dioxide from within the lungs. Inhalation can therefore be fatal.
A number of accidental deaths and near misses (sudden collapse) have occurred from inhaling excessive amounts of helium from balloons or balloon filling systems. Such cases are rare but typically occur with children or young people experimenting or playing pranks, without understanding the dangers. Such dangers are also prevalent around Christmas time when alcohol plays a part, as inebriated individuals decide to ‘do the funny voice’.
Quite simply, balloon gas (and other gases such as nitrous oxide) should never be inhaled unless under medical supervision or when being used by trained professionals or competent sportspersons.
What Can Go Wrong?
There are three main dangers when it comes to inhaling gases such as balloon helium:
- Inhaled gases will displace oxygen from the lungs and body. If enough of the gas is inhaled, a person will pass out as the brain is deprived of oxygen. This can happen in seconds and without warning. If normal breathing is not resumed quickly and oxygen replenished, brain damage and death through asphyxiation will occur.
- Asphyxiation can also happen in a confined space if enough of the gas is released.
- Compressed gases are held under immense pressure and will cause serious damage if released in an uncontrolled way.
Fatalities Do Occur
In the summer of 2022, a five-year-old boy died from brain damage. The inquest into the death heard that the boy had been given a large, green balloon in the shape of a dinosaur as a treat during a trip to a funfair in the North East with his mother and father.
The hearing was told he had been playing in the garden of his family’s home before going inside on his own, when his mother found him unconscious in the living room 10 minutes later. He was rushed to hospital but died six days later.
His mother said she believes her son had been trying to climb into the dinosaur balloon – which was ‘the same size as him’ – to wear as a costume to surprise his family. At the inquest the Coroner described the tragedy as ‘every parent’s nightmare’.
What Part Can You Play?
Over the festive period, if you are present when someone decides to inhale balloon gas, please do all that you can to intervene and draw a halt to proceedings. Everyone will think that you’re a party pooper… but you could be a life saver!
