Give it time!

It's a safety issue if you're caught in a fire and it's then going to be bad for your health too, as it might be for livestock and wildlife. Same mistake as so arrogantly and repeatedly displayed by the smarties at HSE* who seek to debunk any use of health & safety is if doesn't dovetail precisely into some specific piece of legislation. http://forum.iosh.co.uk/...spx?g=posts&t=108073 *HSE Mythbusters or whatever they call themselves. I get unimpressively smug press releases every week or so, including one this very morning.

Yes Ian agreed, but it is not within the remit of the HSE because it is not a work activity. The impression given by the MSM is always that anything that might harm you is 'elf n safety. This report is a welcome departure from that sort of lazy sensationalist journalism.

For the record Ian, I entirely support your view. I was only pleased that for once a prohibition was not all about "health and safety reasons".

How can anyone hate a latern, it does nothing but lie in a box with a small candle that lasts very little time. As said it lasts five minutes if that once you light it. Surely if people want to light them and send them it's up to them. I can understand if people have suffered because of the use of them that they don't like them, but to ban everything that we don't like is a bit strong.

Well that's two reports I am aware of when something has happened because of balloons of course not counting the 99 balloons that nearly started a war. But you can dislike or even hate the people who set them off or make them but can you hate the ballons or labterns. I wonder how many people nearly looked stupid by repoprting them as UFO's. Maybe like fireworks we should try and restrict to certain times of the year.

Maybe we should issue everyone with small fire extinguishers and hard hats just in case we come across any and then we would be able to deal with them. It was a stuffed tiger toy imagine the damage this could cause if it fell on someone. I was being flippant because I thought you meant a balloon, sorry.

I must admit I let one off for my Grandads 90th and he loved it. That was before I'd heard the reports about how damaging it can be for farmers/animals when the carcass falls to earth. I believe DEFRA have/are carrying out an investigation into the environmental impact they have on the countryside. I wouldn't set another one off I dont think.

Some of these were set off at a friend’s birthday party, some took off and floated off into the distance, some would not leave the ground and a couple went up 20 feet or so and came back down. I have to admit to some amusement as it was a fancy dress party, so there was a very good look-a-like of the Mad Hatter from the recent film, throwing jugs of water onto the roof of the single story club house. However the image that will remain in my mind will be of a full size Mighty Mouse and rather plump Zorro (helped by Shrek) climbing over quite a high spiky topped steel fence into the neighbouring field to put out a bush that had caught fire (again with jugs of water). There was a very short conversation by Shrek and Princess Fiona (not me) about where the others may land before going back to the rock band in the club. Outcome of conversation was probably should not do that again. Those little fuel blocks seemed quite capable of melting the tarmac in the car park and keep burning for a considerable time, even when deliberately trying to extinguish them.

Not so long ago I came across one sitting on the road about a foot from my parked car. I would not have been amused to go to my car and find it had landed a metre to the south, where it would have sat burning away the paintwork on my bonnet. Dropping burning debris randomly from the sky over population centres seems like an act of war to me. I personally don't know how anyone can be so dumb as to think it's a good idea.