Bottled Canadian Air Sells Out in Polluted China, More on the Way

Fresh bottled Canadian air is being sold to people in China by two entrepreneurs charging $15 to $46 per canister.

Vitality Air co-founders Troy Paquette and Moses Lam told CBC News the idea came to them as they talked about places overseas suffering from bad air quality problems. Lam said they joked about packaging Canadian air and shipping it around the globe.

The men placed air in a Ziploc bag and it sold for 99 cents on eBay. When they tried again, it sold for $168 after a bidding war. Now they sell canisters of air from Banff and Lake Louise.

Paquette said the poor air quality in China has helped boost their business there.

"The air is just so bad that people just want it now," said Paquette. "They don't want one can."

Vitality Air sold out of its first 500 canisters of its Canadian air and is planning to produce more, said CNN.

"Now we're taking lots of pre-orders for our upcoming shipment," said Harrison Wang, director of China operations. "We're getting close to the 1,000 mark."

Hong Kong Polytechnic University professor Wallace Leung said buying bottles of Vitality Air or any packaged air will not help the country with its air pollution problems.

"We need to filter out the particles, the invisible killers, from the air," said Leung, who does research on face mask effectiveness. "One bottle of air wouldn't help. I would be very cautious."

Lam said selling fresh Canadian air is not a gimmick.

"In North America, we take our fresh air for granted but in China the situation is very different," he said. "If China can import food, water, why shouldn't they have the right to import air?"


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