Helium Balloons To Cost $100

Scientist have said that Earth’s reserves of non replaceable helium gas will run out within 25 years if steps are not taken to conserve its use.

Helium is commonly known as the gas that fills cheap party balloons and makes your voice squeak if you inhale it.

But it is actually a precious resource that is being wasted with reserves of it due to run out within 25 to 30 years, experts have warned.

Earth’s resources of helium are being used at an fast rate. The world’s biggest store of helium lies in a disused airfield in Amarillo, Texas, and is being sold off far too cheaply.

The government of the United States set up the National Helium Reserve in 1925 at Amarillo, Texas with the goal of supplying military airships in time of war and commercial airships in peacetime. Next to hydrogen, it is the second most abundant element in the universe, and accounts for 24% of the elemental mass of our galaxy.

However in 1996, the US government passed a law which states that the facility, the US National Helium Reserve, must be sold off by 2015 to recoup the price of installing it.

This means that the helium, a non-renewable and the most commonly used inert gas, is being quickly sold off at increasingly cheap prices, making it uneconomical to recycle.

Hospitals which use it to cool MRI scanners, Nasa uses the gas to clean its rockets of fuel. Divers use the gas to help prevent the bends while liquid helium is used to cool nuclear reactors and space telescopes. It is also used in the manufacture of fibre optics and liquid crystal displays.

Nobel laureate Professor Richardson said that low price of helium meant that it was being ‘squandered’ rather than being treated as a precious resource.
He also warned that although some substitutes can be found for some applications where helium is used, it will be impossible to use a different material for MRI scanners.

He also said that the only way to deal with the problem would be for the free market in helium to prevail. He also stated that this will mean that a helium balloon of the kind used at children’s parties would cost $100 in the future as the price soared.