Late last week, a video of a man taking puffs from a hookah-esque device swarmed Twitter feeds. This was a promotional video for Delhi India’s very first oxygen bar- Oxy Pure. Oxy Pure touts that each pull from one of it’s mysterious, chemically colored oxygen tanks can grant a variety of benefits outside of clear breathing such as improving sleep patterns, digestion, headaches and serves as a remedy for depression.

This was a promotional video for Delhi India’s very first oxygen bar- OxyPure. OxyPure touts that each pull from one of it’s mysterious, chemically colored oxygen tanks can grant a variety of benefits such as improving sleep patterns, digestion, headaches and serves as a remedy for depression. Wow! Who would have guessed pollution-free air would be beneficial to human health?

In addition to coming in multiple flavors, such as lemongrass, Oxy Pure aims to offer Indian city dwellers relief. In early November, Indian public health officials declared a multiday layer of deadly smog a public health emergency. As a result of the terrible air-quality schools have closed, planes diverted, and people susceptible to toxic air particles have died. In fact, the World Health Organization deemed that Delhi’s pollution levels reached 50 times over what is generally considered safe.

It has yet to be seen if Delhi’s OxyPure is here to stay, but we could perhaps look to China for answers. Vitality Air, launched by Canadian Duo
Moses Lam and Troy Paquette started their business by selling ziplock bags full of fresh Canadian air on Ebay. In a few months, after marketing their product on China’s e-commerce website Taobao, they quickly sold out of hundreds of air compressed canisters. In fact, a range of oxygen brands can be bought in China including New Zealand air and Australian air.

But is this business model truly sustainable? Beijing citizens can get the above-mentioned oxygen for between $25USD to $40USD. Though the current oxygen market has little to no quality regulations, there are very few manufacturing fees outside of saying you went outside and bottled or canned some air. But even, would this play on scarcity be enough to fool people into thinking their health is improving. As Dr. Rajesh Chawla,
senior consultant in respiratory medicine at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital Delhi, put it:

“Even if you breathe in the so-called pure oxygen for two hours in a day, you will go back to breathing the polluted air for the rest of the 22 hours