It seems odd to see people sitting at a bar, with a noticeable absence of drinks in their hands but instead sporting strange tubes from their noses. It may seem stranger still to learn that these people, some of whom must be relatively intelligent, are paying good money to purchase the oxygen flowing from one of many colorful lit hookah-ish contraptions, and sometimes at a premium price. Money. For oxygen. Really? What’s next, bottled water?The fact is that paying extra for something even the most corrupt gangsters couldn’t possibly corner the market on is a much more common occurrence than most people realize. But what is the value-add to spending hard-earned money on something that surrounds us everyday and is accessible for free, no matter who we are, what we do, or where we live?The fact is that some areas of the world don’t have adequate breathing air and oxygen bars rose out of necessity more than fad. Air stations became popular in overcrowded, badly polluted areas of Asia including the downtowns of Tokyo and Beijing. However it was in Toronto that the first official oxygen bar took root in 1996. Catering to a growing numbers of fans, looking to try something new and inexplicable, the trend continued to spread throughout North America into bars, restaurants, malls, and spas in virtually every area from coast to coast. Some claim that because oxygen is quite literally the end all, be all of human existence and the very lifeblood of life, too much O2 can never be enough. Proponents will only look to diminishing levels of air quality in most urban areas of the world and claim that better breathing will only lead to better health and wellness, and that purer oxygen, even taken in smallish doses, will do much to enliven the bloodstream and fight disease through a bolstering of the immune system. While this is true in theory, it remains to be seen scientifically whether or not oxygen bars make enough difference in the overall wellness of humans more than it does in hyping an industry with the “next best thing.”