A breath of fresh air on Brookside

Many consider Brookside a breath of fresh air in Tulsa. Now itâ€™s literally the case. Tulsa's first Oxygen bar opened in Brookside Thursday. <br><br>News on 6 consumer reporter Rick Wells checked

Thursday, March 6th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Many consider Brookside a breath of fresh air in Tulsa. Now itâ€™s literally the case. Tulsa's first Oxygen bar opened in Brookside Thursday.

News on 6 consumer reporter Rick Wells checked it out. Owner Scott Hillsberry: "What we offer is a chance to breath up to 97% pure oxygen." â€˜O2â€™, it's Tulsa's first Oxygen bar, Tulsaâ€™s first what? Oxygen bar. It's a place that dispenses oxygen, rather than alcohol.

It's a bi-coastal kind of thing that has finally arrived here. Hillsberry: "Most are on the West coast and the East coast, it's big in Las Vegas." Here's how it works. You sit down in a comfy chair. They put one of those plastic tube things in your nose and for a few minutes you pay to breathe oxygen. If you like, your oxygen can be flavored. They have a menu of various aromas. So it's oxygen mixed with aromatherapy for about a dollar a minute.

Iâ€™m hooked up here to the uplifting aroma, a combination of peppermint and wintergreen. Smells great, but the question is, is it really gonna do anything?" Hillsberry: "We're not here to make any medical claims, it's just a recreational use."

If you look around the bar there is evidence of beneficial claims for both the aromatherapy and the oxygen. But we couldn't find any competent medical authority that would talk on camera about the benefits of this kind of oxygen use. On the Internet, in an article from last fall's issue of the FDA Consumer Magazine it says, the oxygen in oxygen bars will likely not provide any great benefit nor will it hurt most of us either.

So if breathing flavored oxygen, that might help you relax, or relieve a headache, or help cure a hangover. And a dollar a minute seems about right, it is probably OK.

â€˜O2â€™, located at 3346 South Peoria, is open every day, Monday through Thursday, 9 AM to 11 PM, Friday and Saturday 9 AM until 3 AM, and Sunday, noon until 6 PM.