Oxygen bars

A new craze of inhaling highly oxygenated air is sweeping the States and is now showing signs of blowing across the Atlantic. Phil Mellows takes a deep breath.

Townies tripping to the coast used to return to the smog with bottles of sea air they had bought from some sharp salesman on the prom. For a while it was a terrific joke - if poor value for money. Now, however, selling highly oxygenated air is a serious business.

In the last few years, oxygen bars have taken off in the States and have been quietly catching on here. A handful of London nightclubs do it and oxygen bars have been introduced into posh shops, including Harvey Nichols and Selfridges.

Health benefits are touted but the medical profession is sceptical and the attraction for users appears to be a temporary lift in energy levels.

So how about pubs? Can you imagine your regulars popping in for a pint of lager, a packet of nuts and a gulp of air?

Howard de Souza can. He's spokesman for a company called Earth Oxygen which is targeting publicans with what it claims are the UK's "most competitively-priced" oxygen generators.

"People sit in the pub with a pint of beer reading the newspaper so I don't see why they shouldn't take some oxygen too," he said. He can even envisage the return of the snug, a chill-out zone in a pub where oxygen will be on tap.

"Oxygen is becoming increasingly fashionable," he continued. "I believe the only brake on its growth is the cost, and our new machines have overcome that."

Until now you would have to pay about £2,000 for a large and noisy oxygen generator. Earth Oxygen's new units, called Purple One and Blue One, cost from £33 a month and are about the size of a suitcase.

For a 20-minute session you can charge the price of a pint (it's £3 in Selfridges) so you can quickly be making money.

Units come with accessories: face masks and "nose hoses" which go straight up your nostrils and not only look slightly more attractive but are more sociable. Customers can eat, drink and talk while they sniff.

Earth Oxygen machines will take in the air, remove pollutants and separate the oxygen which then mixes with the surrounding air to produce 40 per cent oxygen, about twice what you'll find in the earth's atmosphere.

If plain fresh air sounds boring, the oxygen can be "flavoured" with aromatherapy scents or, if you're in America, with any wacky flavour you can imagine. One oxygen bar's best-seller is "death by chocolate".

An alternative to a generator is an oxygen canister such as Ogo, launched last year and marketed mainly as a peppermint scented alternative to coffee for jet-lagged travellers.

You may run into problems if you stock canisters in your pub, however. One bar in Edinburgh had to withdraw them from sale when the fire brigade told them that either the oxygen had to go or the place would have to become no-smoking - naked flames and pressurised oxygen do not mix too happily.

Generators should be safe. But does breathing extra oxygen really have positive benefits for people who are already healthy?

Doctors argue that human beings have evolved over thousands of years in an atmosphere that is 21 per cent oxygen and we are perfectly adapted to that level. Higher concentrations won't do a healthy person any harm but you can't actually absorb any more than that so, they say, there's no point to it.

On the other hand, there is also the testimony of oxygen users - that extra oxygen gives them more energy, improves their concentration, increases their endurance and aids faster recovery, from a hangover for instance.

Maybe it's rubbish - but as the spokeswoman for Ogo put it: "Twenty years ago they laughed at the idea of selling bottled water, so who knows?"