The retail market may be running out of gas but Sydney is to get its first permanent stand-alone oxygen bar at Darling Harbour.
The kiosk, which opened at Darling Harbour's Harbourside yesterday, offers 90 per cent-pure flavoured oxygen for $1 per minute for up to 15 minutes, owner Alexi Fahad said.
Flyers for the new bar claim oxygen can increased energy, ease hangover headaches and stress, and help jet lag.
But experts say there are no known benefits of breathing pure oxygen for healthy people, and too much may not be good for you.
Mr Fahad decided on his venture in Sydney after seeing how popular oxygen bars were overseas.
Even though his is Sydney's first purpose-built oxygen bar, oxygen mobile stands at parties, nightclubs and company functions have been around for a while, said Damien Hall of Flowoxygen.
He said his machines were not just "a quick hit" or "a novelty" but also used by people at home and by athletes.
Oxygen bars have been popular in the US and other countries for more than a decade. Hollywood star Woody Harrelson opened an "O2 Bar" in Los Angeles in 1999 but it has since reportedly closed.
So, what's the story with oxygen?
About 21 per cent of the air we inhale is oxygen. Concentrated oxygen is given to hospital patients for asthma and emphysema, and to pilots at high altitudes.
But for the average healthy person inhaling oxygen for a few minutes at a bar won't do much for you, says exercise science specialist Associate Professor Aaron Coutts of the University of Technology Sydney.
"You don't have a high demand for oxygen anyway when you are at rest," he said.
"When you are exercising maximally, there's been studies that show ... the supply of oxygen can improve performance or improve recovery. But at rest, it's not a limiting factor."
His views are echoed by the Australian Lung Foundation's respiratory expert Professor Christine McDonald of Austin Hospital in Melbourne, who said there was no evidence of health benefits from using oxygen bars.
Dr Lin Yiguang, an expert in oxygen toxicity at the University of Technology Sydney, said inhaling pure oxygen increases the amount of toxic oxygen radicals.
"Naturally it will cause damage to our body. Many studies have shown that it can damage the cell membrane, to nuclei and to protein inside the cells."
Mr Hall said he was confident of the oxygen bar's therapeutic benefits, saying that it helped to subside migraine and cold and flu symptoms.
"The main thing is that it really calms a person, it relaxes them. If [people] are really stressed out or they've got migraines, 20 minutes on their oxygen machine brings their heart rates down. It's not just a quick hit."
A spokeswoman for Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration said oxygen bars had not been evaluated by it and so "no assurance can be given as to their safety and efficacy".
"It should be noted, excessive oxygen may be dangerous to people with certain diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease," she added in a statement.
The Australian Lung Foundation said it could not support the use of oxygen bars given the lack of available evidence about its health benefits.
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