The International Balloon Association knows it falls toward the end of the line behind hospitals when it comes to filling up helium tanks, but thanks to the shortage in helium — and higher demand from high-tech industries — party stores are paying triple the price of a few years ago, and sometimes going weeks at a time without refills. Interestingly, the very thing that makes party balloons float is what makes helium storage problematic: as one of the lightest gases in existence, helium simply floats out of Earth’s atmosphere and into space — meaning that as with fossil fuels, we’ll eventually run out of the gas entirely.
There’s a Helium Shortage On — and It’s Affecting More than Just Balloons
Stop talking in that squeaky voice and get serious. From MRI machines to semiconductor manufacturing, here are a few of the things we'll have to do with less of thanks to a global helium shortage.