Instead of providing beers, mixed drinks or hookah, a new Uptown bar serves its customers a round of oxygen.
The Essential Lounge, the oxygen bar located at 11 W. State St., started giving its customers a breath of fresh air because, “It’s a unique idea that came across,” said owner Jon Hall.
Instead of using air from oxygen tanks, like many people expect, the bar’s system filters the air in the room, Hall said. Customers breathe approximately 96 percent oxygen. The average person breathes only about 20 percent pure oxygen.
“The air ... runs it through a sieve,” Hall said. “As it passes through there, it gets passed over (to a different part of the system) to separate out the oxygen.”
Freshmen Natasha Menrisky, an early childhood education major, and Megan Smith, a communication sciences and disorders major, said that they would be skeptical trying the oxygen bar because of possible health risks of inhaling a high amount of oxygen at once.
“I feel like it’s like hookah,” Smith said. “At first, people thought it was the way to smoke without really smoking, but now (research shows) it’s not (healthy).”
However, Hall said that the cleanliness of the air is one thing that separates oxygen bars from hookah bars; the air contains no carcinogens or other harmful substances.
Another way the oxygen bar maintains its customers’ health is cleanliness of the equipment. Customers breathe through a one-time-use tube. The three-person staff ensures that everything is done properly and safely, Hall said.
“Clinically, (oxygen bars serve) no purpose to general public,” said Michael Mark, senior vice president of Helpline Services for the American Lung Association. “There’s no purpose to using them at all.”
The oxygen bar is “just for entertainment here,” Hall added.
The Essential Lounge offers customers a variety of all-natural essential oils to infuse into the oxygen. Hall said that the essential oils would provide only “good smells” and an aroma-therapeutic feel rather than medicinal uses.
These oils come from a facility that is pharmaceutically certified.
ven though oxygen bars are not for medical use, there have been claims that oxygen bars energize, relax and even provide hangover relief. Other online myths include “horror stories” of negative health effects due to a person breathing too long or incorrectly, Hall said.
Hall added that NASA also studied oxygen intake by allowing astronauts to be in a 100 percent oxygen environment in space, and no adverse medical problems were found.
The Food and Drug Administration recommends 30 minutes per customer. The Essential Lounge typically enforces a 20-minute maximum per customer (each person must buy at least five minutes), Hall said.
“I would say it’s something I would be open to trying,” said Mitch Fannon, a junior studying business. “I have never been to an oxygen bar before.”
He added, however, that he would be somewhat skeptical because of potential, unknown health concerns associated with taking in high amounts of purified oxygen.
However, the staff researched oxygen bars and their health outcomes thoroughly before opening, Hall said. “We take health seriously here.”
kf398711@ohiou.edu
