Rocket Oxygen – The next bottle of water!!!
In the 1980’s, people scoffed in the face of bottled water. Water in a bottle? Why pay a dollar for something that can be gotten free from a drinking fountain? Because it was convenient. Bottled water is as common as the air we breathe. Will anything surpass it in popularity? Well….
A new trend is brewing in America, and that is bottled oxygen. That’s right, oxygen in a bottle. Sure, it’s free all around you, but…these come in different scents and flavors! Not to mention they cost $50 each..
So, what is bottled oxygen? It is an aerosol canister that is pressurized with 90% – 93% pure oxygen, with the option for a scent/flavor addition. This canister comes with either a spray nozzle, a mouth piece, or an air tube for large cans. You take a long deep breath or two, and then seal it up.
These bottles come in varying sizes. Unlike the ones scuba divers use, which are heavy and are strapped to ones back, these cans are smaller and designed for everyday use. They range in size from large with a weight of several pounds, to being ultra-small, and weighing mere ounces. The typical mouth piece is shaped like a mouth guard. Simply insert into mouth, press a button, and breathe deeply.
Oxygen-in-a-bottle is not an entirely new idea. In fact, it is quite old. Oxygen bars have existed for quite some time, giving users a few minutes of oxygen to enhance whatever experience the person hopes to enhance. Likewise, divers have used oxygen canisters for breathing, and mountain climbers have used portable oxygen to survive at high altitudes.
So what is the appeal for an everyday person who is neither 14,000’+ feet up a mountain or hundreds of feet down below the ocean? One website selling portable oxygen bottles, Rocketoxygen.com, says, “Today’s breathable oxygen contains less than 22% oxygen. At one time our breathable air contained more than 50% oxygen…We have adapted, but at a cost….” The website claims that by breathing more oxygen than is available in the environment, we can increase energy, reduce muscle aches, prevent the formation of cancer cells due to oxygen deprivation, sleep better, and endure exercise/athletics longer, among other things.
Will bottled oxygen do these things? Anyone who has taken a few deep breaths of oxygen will tell you that it will make one feel relaxed and energized. Likewise, for someone who suffers from chronic headaches, bottled oxygen is often used to alleviate them. As for the claims of helping prevent against diseases and cancers, this is something I can neither confirm or disprove. I, personally, shall take that assertion with a grain of salt.
While bottled oxygen may be an intriguing novelty, it is an expensive one, 50x the cost of bottled water. With the average canister costing about $50 and offering between 30 – 150 breaths, depending on brand and size, it can be quite expensive to experiment with this novelty.
There is also a slight danger for the average person to inhale pure oxygen. Oxygen toxicity is a possibility, which will lead to lung collapse. However, one would have to inhale many dozens of these bottles in a row for that to happen.
Benefits do exist for the everyday person to use these, mainly for times when more oxygen is needed. Marathon runners can surely benefit from a puff or two of 90% oxygen, and the muscles will be able to endure longer. For mountain bikers, back country skiers, or mountaineers who don’t want to carry a 20lb. canister up a mountain, a small 6inch can, can be infinitely useful. Also, for someone who is suffering from an asthma attack, deeply breathing pure oxygen can alleviate it. As bottled oxygen becomes more demanded and common, prices are likely to drop, which will make costs of oxygen for climbing and diving more affordable.
Whether these are useful is up to the person using it. If you want to have some handy oxygen around, then it certainly wouldn’t hurt.