Students were provided with an oxygen bar at homecoming to smell a variety of scents with high doses of oxygen. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
By Brianna Rodriguez
In a world where even water isn’t free, now we can pay to breathe oxygen.
If you didn’t go to homecoming oct. 16, you missed out on the oxygen bar. No, not a bar with alcohol, not a Hookah bar, not a kava bar, not even a beauty bar.
A bar of oxygen.
Yes, students got a whiff of flavored oxygen at homecoming provided by the Harborside Activities Board.
Picture students dressed up in formal homecoming attire with plastic tubes sticking out of their noses.
In other words, students voluntarily looked like Hazel Grace from “The Fault in Our Stars.”
It may look intriguing, but why would HAB waste student funding on something people can already get for free?
There is no scientific evidence to back up its so-called “positive effects,” including curing headaches and hangovers.
A WebMD archived article interviewed George Boyer, chief of pulmonary and critical care at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore.
“If your lungs are healthy, and you have no breathing difficulties, your body has all the oxygen it needs,” Boyer said. “Taking in more is like going to the gas station and trying to fill a tank that’s already filled.”
Oxygen tubes are meant for medical practice. A study from Vanderbilt University Medical Center has evidence to support that a high concentration of oxygen can impact lung function if someone has a problem with their lungs.
Without knowing the effects of oxygen bars, why would HAB spend hundreds of dollars, possibly harming students who used the bars?
Many clubs apply and don’t receive special funding. Meanwhile, HAB spent its budget supported by Activities and Services fees, a $13.80 per credit hour fee taken out of students’ tuition, on an oxygen bar that may look cool and smell nice but certainly isn’t worth hundreds of dollars.
A few hundred dollars could have been better spent with plenty of options.
So let’s take all take a deep breath for free while we still can.
