NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. SHAPIRO: (In squeaky voice) You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.Ĭopyright © 2022 NPR. After all, a helium shortage is no reason to feel deflated. Rub those balloons filled with air on the carpet and stick them to the ceiling. SHAPIRO: In the meantime, a tip we found on Twitter - use static. PFEIFFER: Kornbluth does say some of the production snags may be unwinding soon, and he expects the second half of this year to look a lot better than the first. KORNBLUTH: Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong in the first half of the year. PFEIFFER: And lately, it's been one supply disruption after another, from fires to maintenance shutdowns to indirect side effects of the war in Ukraine. KORNBLUTH: The helium business has been swimming against the current for quite a while now. Kornbluth calls this helium shortage 4.0. That means shortages like this one are a real problem. SHAPIRO: Aerospace, fiber optics, welding - all those industries use it, too. It's also used to cool the magnets in MRI machines and in manufacturing semiconductor chips. PFEIFFER: Yes, filling party balloons is helium's least important job. PFEIFFER: That's athletic director Trev Alberts on the Husker Radio Network.ĪLBERTS: The helium that we are getting as a university we need to use for medical purposes at UNMC in Omaha. TREV ALBERTS: We are, this year, not going to be providing the red balloons for the first time at Memorial Stadium. Their longstanding home game tradition of releasing red balloons after the Huskers' first score? Well. PFEIFFER: Nebraska football fans are feeling the shortage, too. SHAPIRO: It's hard to get exact numbers on how much of that cost is finding its way to consumers, but party supply stores and balloon decor specialists from Chicago to Tucson say they've been forced to raise prices or even ration balloons. PHIL KORNBLUTH: A company that is buying helium is getting somewhere between 45% and 65% of its historical volume depending on who their supplier is. He says 4 of the 5 major helium suppliers have implemented, quote, "formal allocations." Translation - they're basically triaging existing customers. Anyway, that sticker shock squares with what Phil Kornbluth, president of Kornbluth Helium Consulting, is seeing in the markets. SHAPIRO: He gets around by bike mostly, so he says this is the first time he's really been hit by the rising gas prices. And they told her it was, like, pretty much the end of their supply. SUSSMAN: She was going and expecting it to cost maybe like $5. PFEIFFER: Then she went to their local hardware store to fill them up. MARK SUSSMAN: My wife had bought some Mylar balloons, like Sesame Street themed. PFEIFFER: Which you may have noticed if you've thrown a party recently, like Mark Sussman in Washington, D.C., whose daughter just turned 2. What we're saying is there is a helium shortage. What Ari means is the cost of blowing up has blown up. You've heard a lot about inflation, but brace yourself because we're going to talk about inflation inflation.
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