If you are living in one of the Indian metros and dream of breathing fresh air, it may soon turn out to be true albeit at a price.
Vitality Air, a Canada-based firm, plans to sell bottled fresh air to Indians at Rs 12.50 per breath.The cans are of 3-litre and 8-litre capacity, with twin-packs costing between Rs 1,450 and Rs 2,800.
The company based in Edmond in the western province of Alberta will start the sale of canned natural air in India this month, the Hindustan Times reported.
Each can contains compressed air, breathed in through a mask, and comes in two flavours — Banff and Lake Louise.
The Canadian company claims to bottle fresh air in a ski resort and has already sold many such cans to the people in China, which is facing serious pollution issues due to smog levels in air especially during winter months. The company has shipped more than 12,000 cans of fresh air to China covering its seven major cities including Beijing and Shanghai.
Vitality Air has now turned to India after the World Health Organization (WHO) came up with a report that said 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are in India. Delhi reportedly has the most polluted air quality in the world.
The company has already shipped 100 bottles to India where it would be test-marketed soon. It has sent samples to the Canadian high commission in New Delhi and will later sett up kiosks in malls to enhance its visibility.
"The pollution in India is more than in China, we expect it to be our largest market," Vitality Air's founder Moses Lam was quoted by the HT as saying.
Lam, a former banker, said that he started Vitality Air as a novel idea during the summer in 2015. "There were forest fires in Calgary and with all the smoke, people started using our product," he said. He added that the model of the business he followed was that of bottled mineral water.
Lam converted his idea into a business model after putting a bag of ziplocked air on eBay, which sold for 99 cents.
"We wanted to do something fun and disruptive so we decided to see if we could sell air," Lam was quoted by the CNN as saying. He said that he travels to Banff, a national park in Alberta, every two weeks and spends 10 hours bottling the air.
The company has not disclosed the process it uses to collect the fresh air calling it a trade secret. "We suck up all the air in Banff, about 150,000 litres every time and it takes about 40 hours," Lam was quoted by the HT as saying.
