While some Australians lament the prospect of a tax on carbon dioxide, Sydney welcomes its newest commodity: oxygen.
The O2 bar, which opened at Darling Harbour’s Harbourside two weeks ago, offers 90 per cent-pure flavoured oxygen for $1 a minute at recommended 15 minute intervals.
Oxygen bars have been flourishing in the United States since the late 1990s and upon witnessing their success there, co-owner Rob Azar decided to try them out in Australia.
Mr Azar models his bar as an establishment that offers a functional benefit to its patrons, not as a social place to hang out.
“People come on their work break as they say ‘yeah it relaxes us’ so I think it’s more of a functional bar with people getting on it and breathing the oxygen in,” he said.
Flyers for the new bar claim inhaling oxygen can increase energy and concentration levels and even has anti-aging effects. However, Mr Azar acknowledged he is not aware of any research that confirms these claims.
So what of these perceived benefits?
Our lungs are adapted to breathe in 21 per cent oxygen and concentrated oxygen is given to patients in hospitals suffering from asthma and emphysema, as well as to pilots at high altitudes.
Professor Christine McDonald, from the Australian Lung Foundation, said there is no evidence of health benefits from using oxygen bars.
Her views are echoed by Professor John Paul Seale, research leader of the Woolcock Institute, an institute specialising in respiratory health.
“I doubt that there would be any physiological benefits, as there have been no studies done,” he said.
According to Professor Seale, inhaling oxygen at a 90 per cent concentration level places people with serious lung disease at risk as it further suppresses their breathing.
With regulations on allowing people with lung disease to inhale oxygen, the O2 Bar has that aspect covered. When it comes to oxygen toxicity, Mr Azar maintained his bar poses no risk to the average healthy person.
“With oxygen toxicity, I think it only happens at 100 per cent oxygen,” he said. “At 90 per cent and under there’s no toxicity in that.”
However an expert in oxygen toxicity, Dr Yinguang Lin, from the University of Technology, Sydney, said inhaling pure oxygen increases the amount of toxic oxygen radicals in the body.
“Ninety per cent oxygen is a really high concentration compared with the 21 per cent that we regularly breathe in,” Dr Lin said.
“The harmful effect occurs to the cell membranes as soon as you have more oxygen than is needed in the body.”
So should people ever consider inhaling pure oxygen?
“Unless it is necessary to save their lives in hospital, people should not be using pure oxygen,” said Dr Lin.
