Sky lanterns are usually used in Britain to mark special celebrations such as weddings, parties and New Year. However, are you aware of the dangers they can cause?
What are the risks?
Litter nuisance
Farmers and other landowners have to clear up the remnants of sky lanterns from their fields. Don’t be fooled by bamboo lanterns marked ‘biodegradable’ – they can still take decades to degrade.
Fire
Once a sky lantern is lit, nobody knows exactly where it will land. Fields of standing crops, hay and straw stacks, farm buildings housing animals, thatched roofs plus lots more are all at a significant risk of being set alight.
Animals and Livestock
Sky lanterns can cause suffering or even kill animals and livestock. Not just by fire, sky lantern debris can cause immense stress and injury. Some of the key dangers are:
- Animals eating lantern debris which can cause tears or punctures to internal organs leading to a potentially life-threatening situation
- Animals getting splinters in their skin which may cause infection
- Animals becoming trapped or tangled in debris
- Frames of lanterns can contaminate crops which are then unknowingly fed to animals.
False alarms
Sky lanterns pose a significant danger to aviation traffic such as planes and helicopters. There are concerns that lanterns can be drawn into aircraft engines and can delay take-off and landing. In addition, lanterns drifting across a night sky are also commonly mistaken by the public and coast guards for marine distress signals.
True stories from farmers affected by sky lanterns
Beef and arable farming couple Tony and Sue Robinson from Coolham, West Sussex experienced a mass landing of 28 sky lanterns on their farm in 2013 and are urging people not to release them.
They believe they were lucky to escape a fire, given many sky lanterns had landed alight, scorching the ground around them.
Sue Robinson said: “All we want is for people to be aware of what could happen and we hope we will dissuade people from releasing sky lanterns. If this had happened three weeks earlier, during the dry weather, we could have had a major fire here as many lanterns landed in fields that were earlier growing corn. By the burn marks, many were still alight on landing. One landed yards from our supplies of winter straw and feed for the cattle.”
“These lanterns are not romantic or glamorous - they are in fact dangerous and they’re litter. I believe it is an offence to litter. Bamboo framed lanterns, like the ones that landed on our farm, do pose a fire risk and they could be dangerous to livestock.”
The couple, who have a herd of Sussex cattle, have written to their MP, Nick Herbert, making him aware of the problems sky lanterns cause. They have also written to the three parish councils of Thakeham, West Chiltington, Shipley & Coolham, asking the councils to discourage the release of sky lanterns.
Which councils have banned sky lanterns?
Several councils have backed the campaign and banned the release of sky lanterns on council owned land.
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