Dangerous chemistry revealed in the balloons

Many danes, which inflates the balloons up for festive occasions, the risk in the worst case, to get cancer. New test conducted by the Consumer council Think shows that seven out of the 15 balloons exceeds the emission limit values for carcinogenic substances.

The dangerous substances emitted from the softened plastic, when it comes in contact with saliva.

- It is substances that are carcinogenic, and which, therefore, should not be in the balloons, " says project manager of the Consumer council Think Chemistry Stine Müller to TV2 News.

In total, the Consumer council has Think tested 15 different balloons in order to reveal the harmful chemicals like nitrosamines and nitrosatable substances. Both Denmark and the EU have set clear limits on the amount of dangerous substances in the balloons. Ten of the tested balloons are purchased in Danish shops and online stores, while the remaining five originated from online marketplaces such as Wish, Amazon and lightinthebox.com.

the Balloons from the foreign online marketplaces are produced by companies outside the EU that do not have the same limit values for the chemicals such as Denmark and other EU countries. Out of the seven balloons which did not do the test, strains of five from the online marketplaces, one is from the Danish shop balloons.now, and the last one is from the store Chao Chao.

- It is not the first time it has come forward that there may be some safety problems with products from the online marketplaces. This is the first time we have looked at the chemicals in some of these products, and we must say that the results of our testing has confirmed our fears, " says Stine Müller.

You can read about the entire test here.

the Consumer council Think have spoken with the companies that sell hazardous balloons.

report that they have removed the balloon with too high delivery of nitrosamines from their website.

corresponds to the respective balloons are no longer sold from their website.

explain that they tested the balloons are part of store's assortment.

explain that they make the test in accordance with the applicable guidelines issued by the EBPC (European Balloon & Party Council). They point out that the result of Our Fødselsdagsballoner is below the limit, if one takes the uncertainty in the Consumer Tænks method into account.