THE FRESH AIR for SALE!

The air in China's major cities, as has been well documented, is atrocious. Perhaps there is nowhere on Earth with as much air pollution as Beijing. Last month, the smog choking parts of the country was so thick that the situation was described as having reached doomsday levels. Authorities issued a red alert warning against hazardous smog descending on the city.

As concerns grow over the terrible health effects of living in such an environment, some Chinese consumers are turning to a relatively unusual tactic: buying cans of clean air. This is where Canada comes in to save the day. Vitality Air, a Canadian company, bottles the cool mountain air found in the scenic Rocky Mountains. It has a large consumer market for its product in China. As you guess, the air doesn't come cheap. The company charges between $20 and $32 for a canister that lasts between 150 and 200 breaths.

Vitality Air has been shipping containers to India as well. This is important because a recent study found that air pollution in New Delhi is 1.5 times worse than in Beijing. In fact, this isn’t the first time that someone took advantage of Chinese pollution. Back in 2013, the well-known Chinese multimillionaire Chen Guangbiao sold 10 million cans of clean air taken from the Xinjiang region. Since then, a number of breathable clean air companies have popped up around the world selling air in cans, jars, bottles and even bags. Prices range from $20.00 to around $260.00 for a bottle of air collected by skydiving entrepreneur Jakob Aungiers during one of his jumps.

Air pollution may be a huge market opportunity for Vitality Air and its competitors, but we have to understand this: One bottle of air wouldn’t help! This obviously isn’t the solution to the air pollution in our world. The whole concept of selling air is nightmarishly dystopian. How about we improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions a bit so we don’t have to buy clean air like some sort of dystopian future movie?