The first known reference to the recreational use of oxygen is found in Jules Verne’s 1870 novel Around the Moon. In this work Verne states “Do you know, my friends, that a curious establishment might be founded with rooms of oxygen, where people whose system is weakened could for a few hours live a more active life. Fancy parties where the room was saturated with this heroic fluid, theaters where it should be kept at high pressure; what passion in the souls of the actors and spectators! what fire, what enthusiasm! And if, instead of an assembly only a whole people could be saturated, what activity in its functions, what a supplement to life it would derive. From an exhausted nation they might make a great and strong one, and I know more than one state in old Europe which ought to put itself under the regime of oxygen for the sake of its health!”

Modeled after the “air stations” in polluted downtown Tokyo and Beijing, the first official oxygen bar (the O2 Spa Bar) opened in Toronto, Canada, in 1996. The trend continued in North America and by the late 1990s bars were in use in New York, California, Florida, Las Vegas and the Rocky Mountain region.

Customers in these bars breathe oxygen through a plastic hose inserted into their nostrils. Oxygen bars can now be found in many venues such as nightclubs, salons, spas, health clubs, resorts, tanning salons, restaurants, coffee houses, bars, airports, ski chalets, yoga studios, chiropractors, and casinos. They can also be found at trade shows, conventions and corporate meetings, as well as at private parties and promotional events.