In all honesty, I kinda can't blame them. For one, it actually does make sense to ban latex balloons from many public areas (especially hospitals and government buildings). Latex allergies are somewhat common, and the more severe version of the allergy can cause a potentially fatal reaction just by being near-ish balloons or being in a room that recently had balloons in it. It also makes sense to ban outdoor balloon releases because it's more or less just littering on a large scale and because the inevitable balloon litter endangers local wildlife (Animals sometimes mistake brightly colored pieces of latex on the ground as something edible, and if they try to eat them it has a pretty high risk of killing them).