Saviors of the 'airpocalypse'(2)

Sensing the impending rush, Wang came into the corporate headquarters early on Monday to make sure her customers were among the first to receive their orders, including a Chinese mother with asthma who wanted an air purifier because she did not want to take medication while nursing her newborn.

Murphy expects the city's worsening smog will lead to a flood of new sales to corporations, schools and embassies seeking to calm the health concerns of jittery staff and customers.

Doomsday hype misplaced

Buckley appreciates the extra business, but wishes people would take a calmer view of the dangers of air pollution. "This wasn't something that was going to kill them immediately," he said of the smog. "For most people, the effect of the 'airpocalypse' was the equivalent of a few nights in a night club and a few drags of a friend's cigarette."

As for the media's dramatization of smog by using terms such as "airpocalypse," Buckley believes it is "one of the least helpful things in the press."

"It's no use for me to say air pollution should be reported in a calm and reasonable manner without plays on words because it's never going to happen," he says.

The health risks of air pollution are cumulative over years, he said, citing data that suggested living in a city like Beijing for 10 years could take eight months off your life on average.

"First of all, it should not stop you from coming to Beijing," he says. People can rationally manage the risk by choosing to live far from main roads, wearing masks in traffic and, on bad air days, staying indoors with air purifiers at home, work or school, he says.

In the four years since starting the company, Buckley had never received an e-mail from a concerned parent of an overseas student. But over the past two weeks, he has received four.

He told one parent: "The air pollution problem here is serious, but it is a long-term thing. If your daughter is fit and well with no bronchial problems, she will be OK here. We will tell her about masks and air purifiers."

Torana and IQAir have since replenished their stock, but with an apparent "second coming" of the so-called airpocalypse on the horizon, sales remain high.

Both expats and ex-Beijingers have long cited pollution as a top reason for leaving the city, but Murphy thinks the latest wave of choking air could deliver the nail in the coffin for many families.

"This was the final decision for people to move on to greener pastures and bluer skies," says Murphy. "One of my son's teachers came in [to the store]. After two-and-a-half years, they said they are leaving due to the smog."

Murphy started the business with his wife six years ago. The business has since grown to 78 people and his product is now being carried by a Chinese electronics chain in other cities.

But the recent record-breaking smog has made even Murphy's Chinese wife push for his family to move to his adopted home of Vancouver, Canada.

"The kids are sick. [My wife] is sick. She's afraid to have them outside," he says. "Her main question is, 'which is more important: the kids' health or the success of the business?'"

As a father, Murphy says he wants to move. But as a businessman, his instincts tell him to stay. "I can't sell air cleaners in Vancouver," he quipped.