This is a list of Guinness World Records that have been discontinued for various reasons. This may include that the record poses a threat to health or the environment.
| The largest ever mass balloon release | Environmental concerns (see Balloonfest '86) | [1] [2] | |||
| Largest audience at a camel wrestling festival (and other controversial animal sports) | Concerns with animal welfare | The 1994 Camel Wrestling Festival in Selçuk, Turkey had an audience of 20,000. | 2010 | ||
| Fastest journey around the world by car | Speed limits | 1996 | |||
| Fastest yodel | In February 1992, a German yodeler named Thomas Scholl hit 22 tones in one second, 15 of which were falsetto. | ||||
| Heaviest pets | Encouraged people to over-feed their pets | The winner for heaviest cat, Himmy, had to be transported in a wheelbarrow and weighed upon his death from respiratory failure in 1986. | 1998 | [3] [4] | |
| Hunger strikes and fasting | Health concerns | [5] | |||
| Untimed gluttony | Health concerns | The 1955 edition declared the fastest time to eat an ox was 42 days, completed in 1880 by Germany’s Johann Ketzler. A total of 43 gluttony records were discontinued in 1989, with just greatest omnivore remaining for historic value (Michel Lotito consumed chandeliers, bicycles, television sets, and a Cessna light aircraft). Though Guinness was not aware of anyone dying while attempting the records, a representative said "they are simply gross".[6] | 1989 | ||
| Largest penny pyramid | Penny shortages | In 1984 the award went to two preteens from Arizona named Marc Edwards and Ben Schlimme, Jr. who built a structure of 104,000 pennies.[7] | 1984 | ||
| Largest pie fight | Wasteful. Food in record attempts to be used "for general consumption by humans" | [8] | |||
| Longest kiss | Dangers associated with sleep deprivation | 2013 | [9] [10] | ||
| Longest time spent buried alive | Unsafe | In 1998, a "human mole" named Geoff Smith remained underground for 147 days in order to achieve the Guinness record and beat his mother's 101-day stint. Guinness denied the award for safety reasons, and Geoff stated "There are far more dangerous things in the book. There is a record for a man who eats cars." | [11] [12] [13] | ||
| Longest time spent without sleeping | Health concerns | 1974 | [14] [15] [16] [17] | ||
| Most beer drunk in an hour | Health concerns | Within 60 minutes, 23-year-old Jack Keyes drank 36 pints of beer. The feat occurred in 1969 in Northern Ireland. | 1989 | ||
| Most difficult tongue twister | The 1974 edition featured "The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick". | 1974 | |||
| Most greeting cards received by an individual | Fear of overwhelming the postal system | Young British brain cancer patient Craig Shergold set a record for receiving 33 million cards between 1989 and May 1991. However, due to an email hoax, the deluge of mail continued for more than a decade after Craig's recovery.[18] [19] | |||
| Most guitars smashed during a concert tour | "Guitar welfare" | Matthew Bellamy of the English rock band Muse wrecked 140 guitars during a tour in 2004. | |||
| Most sky lanterns released simultaneously | Environmental concerns | In May 2013, 15,185 sky lanterns were released in Iloilo City, Philippines to promote world peace. | |||
| Most tweets in a single second | There were 143,199 tweets sent in a second on 2 August 2013. It occurred as the Studio Ghibli film Castle in the Sky aired on Japan television because of a tradition of tweeting the word balse as it is said on screen. The previous record of 33,388 was set during a different airing of the film. | ||||
| Video game high scores | |||||
| Fastest violinist | Difficulty in conclusively determining whether all musical notes have been sufficiently played (even when slowed down) | 2017 | [20] | ||
| Longest dreadlock | Difficulty in determining if re-attachment of broken hair occurred | 2006 | [21] |