In South Africa there are several grades, amongst others ballon grade. 
Apparently
under law, Ballon or party grade is supposed to have 21% O2 content, so what
the supplies do
is to add 20% O2 by volume.  This is to curb the number of increasing blackouts
that
occur when people breathe pure He.

There has been a significant increase in the number of outlets that provide He
filled ballons 
for marketing purposes.  Especially at restaurants.  Nearly every restaurant in
the Johannesburg area
that caters for family entertainmnet will give each child a ballon.

There are also several other grades of He available, including that which has
been spectrographically analysed
and that costs!

Dennis Harding
South Africa

-----Original Message-----
From:	John R. Rose [SMTP:rose@cs*.sc*.ed*]
Sent:	15 November 1997 02:15
To:	Kevin Connell
Cc:	rose@cs*.sc*.ed*; cavers@ge*.co*; techdiver@aquanaut.com
Subject:	Balloon grade Helium

Kevin,

When I jokingly referred to "balloon grade" helium, I had no idea that
suppliers would actually "cut" helium with a cheaper gas.
I was really referring to 99.99% pure helium. My supplier does NOT have
a separate balloon grade.

-John


> Now I don't have first hand experience on this (my supplier doesn't do
> this) but I've heard that some suppliers actually use a really low grade
> helium and mix it with another cheaper gas (nitrogen) for a specific
> "balloon" application.   This makes it cheaper than the pure industrial
> stuff, but still floats balloons.  

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