Global Helium Shortage Threatens Medical Devices

Helium is a mainstay in the medical industry, where it is used for a variety of applications. MRI machines are notable using helium to cool the large superconducting magnet at the core of the device. A helium shortage could increase costs of patient care or even force hospitals to deny certain treatments to patients altogether. 

Now, experts are estimating that the world’s helium supply will be depleted in 25-30 years. “We manage it on a daily basis,” says Ellen Joyner, MR Services Product Manager for Siemens, a global producer of medical imaging and MRI devices. She says since news of the shortage hit, Siemens has been performing a delicate balancing act for its customers. In order to keep up with customer demand Siemens has placed helium on allocation for the past two years. “Knowing we have a restricted amount of helium we do short sells. Instead of filling a magnet to 90% we might fill to 75% or 80%,” Joyner says. What’s more there are technical challenges presented in the machines themselves. “Older magnets have a boil off, meaning that even when they’re idle they are still consuming helium.” As a large buyer Siemens has been able to continue supplying to its customers, however Joyner says smaller companies have been unable to obtain helium altogether. 

As an element, helium is created naturally, but through a very slow process. And its light weight and tendency to leak into the atmosphere makes it difficult to refine. The U.S. is the world’s largest producer of helium and has been stockpiling it since 1925, when the Federal Helium Program was established to store helium for defense applications. The Helium Act of 1960 responded to increased demand across industries by giving private natural gas producers incentives to sell their helium to the government. 

However, the government overestimated its need for helium, to the tune of a debt to the U.S Treasury of over $1 billion. In 1996 Helium Privatization Act was created in response to increasing private demand for helium and allowed the federal government to set prices and sell helium to private refiners in order to cover the debt, with a goal of having all of the helium sold off by 2015. The act created a formula for selling helium that still determines pricing today (as opposed to market forces). In April the federal government announced a price spike in helium that is threatening to create a shortage that threatens the global medical industry.  

Technological advancements have helped reduce demand (newer MRI magnets have zero boil off) and a new major processing facility, Qatar II is expected to go live in May 2013 to help alleviate some of the helium supply issues. However, there are those with even longer-term concerns. Legislators believe that new policies must be made in order to stave off a future shortage.

Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) has drafted the Helium Stewardship Act (S. 2374) in response. In a statement, Bingaman’s office has criticized the current sales structure for “distorting the private helium market and creating uncertainty for commercial, Federal, medical, and scientific users of helium.” The Helium Stewardship Act draws on recommendations from private refiners, retailers, end users, the National Academies of Science, and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which oversees the Federal Helium Reserve, to propose a system that will sell helium at market-based prices and extend the January 1, 2015 “sell by” date under which the current law mandates that the Federal Helium Reserve be sold off. A spokesperson from Bingaman’s office says that the bill has gained a good deal of bipartisan support though no word was available on if it is expected to continue through Congress. —Chris Wiltz