Smoking ice cream, illuminated beverages, and sparkling balloons are among the playful gimmicks to have come under fire after a Tuesday report by Beijing Morning Post raised health and safety concerns.

Eye-catching products are commonly peddled by the street vendors populating Beijing’s ritzy shopping and nightlife hub, Sanlitun — but many such trinkets come without manufacture dates, quality inspection certificates, or even manufacturer’s information, the newspaper found.

Sanlitun merchants told Beijing Morning Post that transparent balloons containing flashing LEDs last for around three days before they start leaking gas. However, the vendors the paper interviewed were unable to say for certain whether the gas used to inflate the balloons was noncombustible but pricey helium, or flammable but cheap hydrogen — a small but important distinction that has proved harmful in the past.

In November, four people were injured when a man holding a hydrogen-filled balloon in a crowded taxi tried to light a cigarette. One of the four — whether it was the smoker was not specified — suffered second-degree burns on his face and limbs.

From an online search, Sixth Tone found over a thousand vendors on e-commerce website Taobao selling uninflated LED balloons from 7 yuan to 25 yuan ($1 to $4) per item. How to inflate the balloons is left to the reseller to decide.

Song Lifang, a 31-year-old hostel owner in the southwestern city of Dali, told Sixth Tone that her 5-year-old daughter is drawn to anything bright and flashing, like the LED balloons. “Occasionally, I run into online videos showing these balloons exploding, and I have my daughter watch with me,” Song said — though such teaching moments do little to deter the girl from reaching for all that glitters the next time they’re out for a stroll in the city.

Electronic lights have found their way into other flashy tourist fare, too, such as the luminous ice cubes in some juices and cocktails. A Beijing-based emergency medicine doctor surnamed Liu told Beijing Morning Post that depending on the quality of the plastic surrounding the LED, it’s possible that the light and its battery being immersed in a beverage — which customers described as tasting of soda water blended with syrup — could cause a harmful reaction.

Regardless of any real or perceived health risks, however, glimmering cocktails with names like “Blue Enchantress” can be had all over Sanlitun for 25 to 60 yuan.

“Only things that meet food safety standards should be allowed in drinks,” Li Shuguang, a professor from the School of Public Health at Shanghai’s Fudan University, told Sixth Tone. Li added that some profit-minded business operators may be more inclined to scratch customer safety off their list of priorities.

Liu, the doctor, even cautioned that liquid helium ice cream, which gives off a smoky gas, can be cold enough to “burn” the inside of an overzealous eater’s mouth — but so, for that matter, can ice.

Editor: David Paulk.

(Header image: A child holds a balloon full of brightly-colored LEDs in a shopping district in Beijing, Dec. 25, 2017. IC)