The Most Improbable News Headline I Read Today – Canada Selling Bottled Air to China

December 15, 2015 – The headline reads “Chinese buy up bottles of fresh air from Canada.” It sounds like a joke but in fact an Edmonton, Alberta company,  Vitality Air, is bottling Rocky Mountain fresh air and selling it to China. The first shipment of 500 sold in four days. The price 100 yuan or $15.47 US at current exchange rates. Each bottle contains 7.7 liters (2 gallons) of air taken from Banff National Park. Mineral water cost 1/50th the price. Demand remains high with 4,000 more bottles on their way to customers in China.

Who is buying? Wealthy urban dwellers in cities of Northeast and South China where smog conditions have become so severe that a red alert was issued in Beijing last week advising people to stay in doors even though air in buildings is also polluted. So people are willing to buy a piece of atmosphere shipped from Canada, and not just any part of the country, but the area associated with the rugged outdoors of the Rockies.

How is it made? The company goes to remote areas of the Rocky Mountains and fills massive cans with air that is put through a clean compression to lock in its purity. The air is then transferred under quality control conditions to the 7 liter canisters.

You can buy singles and twin-packs of Lake Louise and Banff air. For those unfamiliar, Lake Louise is near the north end of Banff National Park. The Banff air is obviously from the mountains around the city (see image below) because I’m sure the air isn’t being collected in the downtown.

There is no doubt some novelty in these purchases. Vitality’s Chinese agent says the buyers, mostly wealthier women, are sending the bottles as gifts to friends and family, although seniors’ homes and some night clubs have been stocking up quantities as well.

Vitality describes its products features as follows:

• it fits comfortably in a purse, satchel, gym bag or backpack.
• it comes with a two-in-one face mask and an innovative spray cap for precision delivery.
• it is ideal for use in heavily polluted areas when you need that “breath of fresh air,” purity and freshness guaranteed.
  
• it allows the user to get 150 one-second inhalations of air containing between 18 and 30% oxygen.

Have atmospheric conditions gotten so bad in China that a bottle of fresh air has market value? Apparently so.

The company says demand for its fresh air is an embarrassment of riches and that they have “bit off more than we can chew.”

China isn’t the only market. The company has been shipping Rocky Mountain air to India, Dubai, Israel, Thailand and Turkey. To retain its Rocky Mountain crispness customers even report refrigerating the bottles to give it that cold Canadian feel.

When the fad wears off the company does have another line of business, selling bottled oxygen to medical suppliers and providers.

And as for its Chinese customers, let’s hope that smog red alert days are far fewer in the future as the country begins to address its heavy reliance on coal-fired power plants for energy, and its explosive growth in transportation burning fossil fuels.