The Air that we Breathe...

My Biotechnology practical was rather exciting: we were finally learning how to grow white spongy masses of bacteria in Petri dishes. The class was warned a little more than a thousand times about how clean and septic the environment around us had to be: washed with 67% ethyl alcohol, swabbed by cotton pads, etc., and we were really starting to get restless.
Finally, my teacher led us to a room…above it a sign, in bold and ominous letters: THE INOCULATION CHAMBER.

The minute all twelve of us were inside, the metal door was slammed shut, bolted and locked from the outside by the lab assistant.
We were trapped…and doomed (though we didn’t know it then).

My teacher clicked a few switches, and a huge one called HEPA (Highly Efficient Particulate Air). And she calmly continued to demonstrate the cleansing process.

With every passing minute, I felt my head get heavier: my stomach churned, my vision got blurry, and I felt the room spinning. As I leaned against the cold tile wall for support, I noticed one of my classmates nearly sinking to the floor. All of us were either clutching our stomachs or our mouths, as if we were going to throw up.

Soon enough, my teacher could no longer ignore the groans and moans that were now echoing in the huge chamber. Her face surprisingly bore a rather amused expression, which angered us slightly; the situation was far from funny.

When the door of the chamber (read: DUNGEON) was finally opened, we properly resembled a stampeding herd of wildebeest as we rushed out, gasping for air. We collapsed onto stools, clung to cupboards, and clutched tables as the colour slowly returned to our faces.
Our teacher followed us out calmly, like she had gone to collect a book and had just come back. She settled down at her desk, propped her elbows on the table, and leaned in to take a look at all of us.
“You were in just for ten minutes…the air wasn’t even properly purified then. For your information, that was the quality of the air in the 18th and early 19th century. You’ve all been exposed to polluted air since you were born…you can’t breathe air that does NOT have all those pollutants.”

Well, that’s something.
Hurray to polluted air!