CANBERRA, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- A South Australian council has moved to ban helium balloons in outdoor areas to protect marine life from latex pollution.
If the Victor Harbour Council votes to introduce the by-law, it would become the first council in South Australia (SA) to ban the use of gas-filled balloons on public lands.
Councillor Moira Jenkins proposed the ban at a meeting on Monday night, saying the council had to show "leadership" following a series of complaints about pollution during the Christmas period.
A 2016 study by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) found that balloons, bottles and plastic bags were the three most dangerous pollutants for wildlife.
"During the (Christmas) pageant there were balloons on floats and some got loose, flying into the air, and a number of residents raised concerns with me about that," Jenkins told News Limited on Tuesday.
"We're a coastal community and there is a very high risk of those balloons going into the ocean and ending up being eaten by penguins, fish and dolphins."
Jenkins said that she had made a compromise by seeking to only ban gas-filled balloons on account of them being harder to control.
Victor Harbour Council has agreed to ask its neighbouring councils to also investigate a ban on helium balloons.
The region's South Coast Environment Center supported the proposal, saying there were plenty of alternatives to the dangerous balloons.
"When let go, they can blow high into the air, then burst or deflate and return to pollute, sometimes hundreds of miles from where they were released ... turning deadly," the centre's coordinator Gayl Males said.
A similar ban has already been put in place by councils in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia.
