Oxygen bars are beginning to pop up across France. Pascale Mollard-Chenebenoit finds that health authorities are beginning to question their merits.

   PARIS, February 13, 2008 - As oxygen bars begin to pop up across France,
health authorities are beginning to question the merits or otherwise of
sniffing O2.
   Supposed to improve health and well-being, oxygen bars date back to the
late 1990s, spreading from Canada to California and to Britain and Japan, in
nightclubs, health clubs, airports or even trade fairs.
   But Paris' first oxygen bar opened only last week.
   Flagged as "a revolutionary anti-fatigue, anti-stress and anti-depression
concept", the city's maiden O2 bar is housed in an up-market beauty institute
owned by no less than the wife of top French publicist and political
"kingmaker" Jacques Seguela.
   Seguela has been very much in the news recently for bringing together
President Nicolas Sarkozy and his new wife Carla Bruni around a dinner table,
a coup that comes almost three decades after helping propel leftwing leader
Francois Mitterrand to the country's highest public office.
   So the opening of his oxygen taps a stone throw's from the Champs-Elysees
attracted a bevy of French celebs and political high-fliers from across the
spectrum.
   "This is the first time you can legally shoot up!" said Seguela, showing
his VIP guests the rows of oxygen bottles lined up in different parts of the
salon.
   But the politicians -- including a current cabinet member and two
ex-ministers -- were cautious.
   "It has more of a psychological rather than a technical effect," said
former leftwing culture minister Jack Lang after inhaling a dose of oxygen
flavoured with essential oils bubbling in a jar.
   Oxygen bars offer sniffers an increased percentage (up to 95 percent) of
oxygen compared to the normal atmospheric content of 21 percent -- lower in
the case of severe pollution.
   Guests need to inhale for at least 10 minutes "to feel the effect", said
Jean-Guillaume Laurent, who works for the Colian company that sells O2
equipment in France.
   "Not bad," said Labour Minister Xavier Bertrand after a sniff.
   "It looks great," said philosopher and former rightwing education minister
Luc Ferry.
   "It does clear your nose," said a more practical young woman nearby.
   O2 bars have already opened in other parts of France, in Saint-Tropez on the French Riviera, at the Deauville casino, and in Strasbourg on the border with Germany. And as in other countries, oxygen-sniffing is increasingly popular at promotional events.
   But with oxygen concentrated at 99.5 percent considered to be medicine (for
breathing problems notably), authorities are scratching their heads over
whether or not to regulate trendy O2 bars.
   The French Drugs Agency (Afssaps) told AFP that it had "begun reflecting
about oxygen bars."
   "We are asking ourselves questions. Is this or is this not a health
product?" said Marie-Laurence Gourlay, who is in charge of the proper use of
health products for Afssaps.
   "We know that at some levels of concentration (more than 99.5 percent) and
over long periods (more than six hours), oxygen can be harmful for the lungs
and the central nervous system," she said.
   Most oxygen bars suggest inhaling between five and 20 minutes.
   Essential oils, Gourlay added, could also be a health risk depending on the
type of oil, its concentration and the way it is administered.
   And with some of the oil-and-oxygen concoctions claiming to help fight
headaches and head-colds, the agency in the future will be keeping a close eye
on O2 bars, she said.

AFP

February 2008 

photo oxygen bar copyright 'bantosh'