Lately there have been all the “oxygen” bars popping up everywhere. How do they get this oxygen? Can someone just walk into a pharmacy and request an oxygen tank or would they need a prescription? If they need a prescription, how can these oxygen bars offer it to the general public?
Bottled oxygen isn’t too hard to get hold of - diving shops can supply it (Although they’d probably want to know what you were going to use it for - only special forces use pure oxygen for diving) and so can welding gear suppliers. As far as I know, you don’t need a licence or prescription to obtain it.
Oxygen is readily available from many outlets. My uncle uses it extensively to transport live fish. Also consider that half of an Oxy-Acetylene (sp?) torch is a tank of Oxygen.
A couple of points:
Welding oxygen is not certified for breathing. Breathable oxygen must meet requirements for purity. It’s tested to ensure that it does not contain levels of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons above a very low limit. This means additional costs for the testing, compressor filter maintenance, and type of compressor oils used.
Since all this costs quite a bit, I doubt if welding oxygen meets the requirements.
I haven’t seen oxygen in any dive shops although it’s possible one could stock it for one of three reasons.
- Oxygen is used to treat divers with DCS or suspected DCS and its use is taught to divers certified to the Rescue Diver level and above.
- Nitrox or enriched air diving is becoming more popular. If the dive shop offers nitrox they would have breathable oxygen available for the nitrox mix.
- Recreational diving rebreathers are now available and the closed circuit types use a small tank of oxygen.
Whether the shop can sell it or not is another question. I think state laws may vary. For example I recall reading an article about regulations in Florida prohibiting the refill of oxygen bottles used for DCS treatment without a prescription. I think divers were eventually given the okay to get refills without a prescription.
Concerning divers breathing pure oxygen, it becomes toxic as pressure (depth) increases. I don’t know what the military uses now but a common civilian limit is a pressure of 1.4 atmospheres. That limit would be reached at a depth of about 14 feet, which would seem to limit the usefulness of pure oxygen as a diving gas.
The oxygen at these “bars” is advertised as “so much more pure” than what we breathe daily. I want to know where I can get this, without having to go to these bars.