By Cole Mellino | Eco Watch
Reminiscent of a scene out of Space Balls (Perri-Air anyone?), a Canadian startup, Vitality Air, is selling bottled air from the Rocky Mountains. It may have started out as a joke, but citizens of smog-choked cities in eastern China are buying it up.
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@vitalityair sells fresh Banff air to smog sufferers. No, this isn't Spaceballs. https://t.co/SF9PMki1sw pic.twitter.com/HeIVYqkLeB
— CBC-The Current (@TheCurrentCBC) December 11, 2015
“A gag gift, that’s how it started off, but you know what? There’s actually a lot of demand for this in … highly polluted countries,” co-founder Moses Lam told the Canadian National Post. The company was founded by Lam and Troy Paquette more than a year ago, but only began selling in China less than two months ago.
The idea came when Lam sold a bag of fresh Canadian air on eBay for 99 cents. That’s steep enough for something that most people have always considered free. But when a second bag bidded up to $168 “we thought ‘hey, we might have a market for this,’” Lam said.
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And people can’t get enough of it. “Our first shipment of 500 bottles of fresh air were sold in four days,” Lam told The Telegraph. Flash forward to earlier this week: the company shipped 4,000 more bottles to China, most of which has been bought.
The company claims that its products can help with “hangovers, alertness and working out” while also being “your solution to pollution.” The startup is struggling to keep up with demand. Each bottle is filled by hand in the Rockies. They “fill massive cans through clean compression,” the company explains on its website, then they bottle it individually at their facility in Edmonton. And they even perform a “comprehensive check” after each can is filled for safety before shipping it out.
Just how much does a bottle of Rocky Mountain air cost you? A 7.7 liter bottle of Lake Louise or Banff air will run you about $32 Canadian dollars ($23 U.S. dollars). The bottle contains “fresh clean air,” which contains 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen and a small amount of other gases. If you’re in search of “pure premium oxygen,” Vitality Air has you covered, as well. Their “pure oxygen” bottle contains 97 percent oxygen and a small amount of other gases. The startup claims it “provides upwards of 200 inhalations” for $28.99 Canadian dollars ($21 U.S. dollars).
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For China’s “upper middle class who crave a better quality of life,” Vitality Air gives them the opportunity to “inject a bit of fresh air into their lives,” Harrison Wang with TAK International, Vitality’s Edmonton-based Chinese distributor, told the National Post.
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its like o’hare in the lorax,,,strange
Air does not belong to anyone, not even the government.
yeah ! you’re right, but for businessmen there’s no such thing as like whay you’ve said, since they always think about “how to earn some money”
That’s the reality.
and TONS OF WASTE …HOW THOUGHT FULL – CRAP…
Rediculous! Just another way to line their pockets. Instead they should put their brains, $’s and time to fixing the problem not make it worse while increasing their profit margin
…
consumer puss
Bottled air? I am not surprised. We think it’s normal to pay for things like WATER AND LAND already. So why not. Smh
Clean breathing air should be free…
but in China there is so little of it….
It’s sad that it has even gotten to that point in the first place. We’ve done nothing but kill the planet. This is why it’s so messed up.
So was water
With the garbage they are selling to us, I’m glad someone is making money from them. Their shoes are destroying our young people’s posture with no arches and we went to buy a winter coat today. What a joke, with no decent lining for below zero weather.
Read a story a while ago where they were stuffing their coats with actual garbage as inside filler! Don’t know how true it is but wouldn’t doubt it.
70 years ago they were still binding women’s feet. Today they are ruining all of our feet with shoes without arches. The posture of our young people is deplorable and directly the fault of the shoes and of course flip flops.
Oh, for Christ’s sake, STOP with all the bigoted remarks! ^^ No one’s forcing you to buy their merchandise. People are dieing over there because they can’t breathe. There is less than 7 degrees of separation between their air and ours–and your response is to dismiss them because they’re in China?? Where is your humanity?! For shame!! ?
The shame is yours my dear.
There is nothing bigoted about the comment. Their air quality is poisoned because they do not care about their people. It’s all about money over there now picking garbage off the streets and putting it into food for sale is not our shame.
I have read if you spend more than $25 on a pair o shoes you are damaging your feet, you are to buy them large so you simulate (somewhat) being barefoot, obviously some adjustments are necessary for different situations, I believe this was referring to a general running shoe
You choose to buy whatever products you’re complaining about. Nobody is forcing you to buy any of that. Breathing fresh air should not cost anyone a penny. Even more disgusting is the fact that some asshole is going to get rich doing this. SO DAMN WRONG
That’s right and I buy none…
Catherine Gibbons Gulette, fyi:
.
https://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/responsible-living/stories/us-christmas-decorations-use-more-energy-many-nations-do-year
Donna Smith-Lyon: PRECISELY!
This is sad that they are resorting to fresh air in a can.
This is what happened in The Lorax…. sad
Bottled air? This reminds me of Lorax..
April fool. Except it’s not April. Seriously ?.
Here’s a revolutionary idea: how about STOP polluting and clean up the environment you’re destroying…?!
Very Novel, apparently
The Greater Problem concerning pollution is not what we emitt into the air by industrialization but the rate at which we are clearing the Earth’s surface of trees and other vital vegetation both on land and beneath the ocean’s surface. Trees are being cut down at the rate of 15 billion trees annually while only 5 billion new trees are being replanted annually for a net loss of 10 billion trees annually. There are only 3 Trillion trees left on the Earths surface which at the beginning of the industrialization was estimated to be closer to 6 Trillion trees but we have lost between 2.5 and 3 Trillion trees since than.
At the we are cutting trees down, a Trillion a century, we will have no more trees to cut down in three cenruries if we do not step up the replanting of trees we are cutting down. Instead of only replanting just a third of the trees we cut down we need to replant a minimum of 5 times what we cut down because not all the trees we replant will reach maturity when you factor in natural disasters besides human kind’s industrialization. We need to end the century with three times more trees on the Earth’s surface and more ecosystems if we want to do something creditable concerning global warming.
^^ At an individual level, what would be the best first-step remedial approach? In Sacramento County CA, the utility company GIVES away seedling trees with full planting/caring instructions, free for the asking. Every property I’ve ever leased, I’ve planted 5 or 6 of these trees. But I don’t feel that is enough. Suggestions? (Complacency is surely going to be the death of this incredible planet we call home…. ?)
Diana Rosen you are 100 percent correct complacency will be the death of us. But you must realize the last 40 year we talked anout rising carbon emissions and taxing carbon or energy were not truely focused on addressing global warming but were convient excuses to raise taxes because politicians do not know how to control spending nor cut expenses.
It is the same reason they tax ciggatetts and alcohol and are attempting to tax fat and sugar not because they care about the various forms of substance abuse.
The world debt at ever level of the world economy, government, business and households is $224 Trillion against a global gross Domestic Product of only $75 Trillion which means debt exceeds income by 313%. That is why world wide economic growth has been less than 2% annually the last decade.
^^ So, what needs to be done NOW, immediately, to slow down this negative trend or, better yet, STOP it? What can the common man/woman do right now; what is within our means?? Or are you suggesting that it’s simply gone too far and it’s too late to have an effective impact? Pray tell: what is the solution????
What a scam
Like the Lorax!! This is terrible our world is becoming a Dr. Suess book!
If people want to buy it then someone will make it.
There are already oxygen bars where you can go breath pure oxygen.
It all seems counter intuitive but hey that’s human beings for ya.
We are so smart we’re dumb.
Totally irrational and emotional creatures
We should add lead.
the air is literally so bad that you will have detox symptoms if you live there for a while and then come back somewhere relatively clean like the US
… insane…..
ah….Canadian ingenuity….the Chinese will buy anything…
Wasn’t there a cartoon movie recently where the evil genius was selling bottled air while polluting the environment and cutting down all the trees?
Yep the Lorax!
Thanks, Dan Florida, great last name.
sell em oxygen tanks.
As my daddy used to say, there is a fool born every day.
In the case of China many fools.. We shouldn’t really laugh, it may be our future..
Oh believe me, I ‘ m not laughing. The smog over there is deadly and it doesn’t seem like they are doing anything about it, but buying air…come on man.
the china forums are all about finding places to buy clean air
Yep the Lorax movie came true good thing my kids are aware of this and plant trees
Stop polluting this earth with all this nonsense and you don’t have to buy no damn air
Yeah, but then how are “they” going to make a profit?
If everybodies dead then nobody going to makes a profit
I saw that movie, the Lorax ✌️
Scary that there are places on earth with no clean air. ..
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better it’s not.”-the lorax
There is no reason to buy air that we breathe. .we just need to get in a direction to change.we can do it
Bottles of FRESH air. What next?
I remember people talking about corporations selling clean air as a future conspiracy theory… we all are doomed.
“I have come. I will destroy your world, make it unlivable, unsurvivable, and sell what little I decided to keep, back to you at a cost. This is my system, and you are a slave to it. Now kneel, in preparation to receive only what I choose to allow you to.” – unknown
Unknown? Sounds like Satan, or the 1%’ers, or Donald Trump–oh, wait: they’re all the same! ?
The left wing, and the right wing, belong to the same bird. It is a predatory bird and we are it’s meal.
Good metaphor David Argue, I will have to remember that one and use it sparingly to insure it maintains its integrity as useful metaphore without it becoming a worn out cliche’.
Sean Bowe Tim Dudgeon Andrew Beever Oh no, it’s finally happened.
Rimited?
Velly rimited, rike air roven.
Buy and sell anything . Trade and profit they are the earths Ferengi – (star- treck)
selling air……i am the only one who sees a problem here….
Make that 2
Seems totally pathetic
Haha are you serious
I have been looking forward to seeing how corporations would figure out a way of selling us the ONLY thing that they haven’t been able to sell us… “AIR.” And now we have it!
thats too close, after we loose the right to breathe air we might aswell shoot ourselves and future selves because thats slavery 🙂
but yes selling something that comes free is a great idea, 100% profit, where does the money go?
oh for pete’s sake, Clean up our current air! fools.
there is no such thing as “FRESH” air, in a can.
Ngudstret
HAHAHAHAHA the air pollution in China is obviously extremely worse ! Now, we see the effect of massive industrialization !
And now these businessmen are exploiting the Chinese market because of that ! HAHAHAHAHAHA
The Lorax anyone!
I can’t believe they are seriously doing that………I’m a bit perplexed.
You’ve gotta be kidding me…
We’re too late!! Emily San Pedro ?
Was in a movie years ago as a joke…. Wtf
Wtf
Insane
How can people act like they’re so blind to it…. this is our future
https://www.higherperspectives.com/midway-1529739914.html
So let me ask you where are these cans made in China lol
they r killing themselfs for the$$$$$$$$$$$$
Wow that is unbelievable! Selling air in a can ! Seriously Ha ha ha ha ha so wrong
See what the world has come to, in spite of all this so called “development”!!
wow
Ha ha reminds me of “The Lorax” ha ha ha ha
That is so sad. How in the world can you put a price on air…? Why are we not getting a mass of chinese?
Pet rocks –
This is stupid as hell!, How about don’t pollute in the first place?
Really?
China ordered bottled farts as well
Are bottles and jars to transparent?
Wtf
Chinese people are now suffering what they did with the natures. Let ’em suffer more.
Its insane
Now even “fresh” air is business…i’ve seen it all.. 😉
Rene Vela Jr.
Business opportunity?
Yet we want to export our already tainted chickens to China to be processed. Just another in the new world order.
would they have to recall them all if a disgruntled employee farted in a can ?
Karma for the chinese government. I pity the people.
@-;– 😉
The Lorax
You will know that you are in the end times when you have to pay for water and air !!!!
Shows you how China doesn’t give a rats ass about its people or environment!
Does it come in different flavours at least?
Copping to not reading the article but how long, exactly, does a can of air last?
Instead of focusing on the problem, they find a way to make some more profit. Nicely done capitalism
I don’t agree with this lol… how about china does something about the pollution haha
they created their own monsters
Rachel Ramos Johnny Brar Jenny L Ramos Ray Ray Dhillon Harpreet Sahota I can’t believe this!
Omg, thneedville!! Crazy.