Drinking while under the influence of alcohol is today recognized in most civilized countries as a serious offence and in some as a criminal act. The reason this attitude has been adopted is fairly easy to appreciate as it relates to the impact that can be sustained on a community by the reckless attitude of someone willing to consume sufficient alcohol to make their ability to drive dangerous to themselves and to anyone they may encounter while they drive.

The commercial introduction of the alcohol breath analyzer is recognition of the concern about drunk driving shared by global communities. The alcohol breath analyzer is a mechanism that provides people a way in which they can measure their alcohol intake in order to assess their ability to drive. Whether a general social survey about alcohol breath analyzers would agree that this is good enough to prevent drunken driving is arguable. Certainly any general social survey about alcohol breath analyzers will recognize that the onus of responsibility in relation to driving remains with the user and if that individual likely to be able to make a proper judgement call after consuming several pints of alcohol? It also seems reasonable to suggest that any equipment can produce a faulty reading which even if a user is conscientious about how much they have drunk could put them at odds with the law.

There may be a case for the alcohol breath analyzer in that it can be used to act as a deterrent, but only in respect of individuals with a responsible attitude towards themselves and the potentially dangerous risk of driving under the influence. An alcohol breath analyzer is never likely to deter those reckless enough to gamble with their and everyone else’s lives.

Because society continues to experience the significant problems caused by drunken driving or driving over the prescribed legal limit the only sure way to defend against this type of abuse is to make a rule that no drinking is permitted if an individual wishes to climb behind the wheel of a car, thereby eliminating the potential risk of driving under the influence of alcohol completely. For this reason the alcohol breath analyzer will always only possess limited use and thereby limited effectiveness. However even limited effectiveness might be sufficient to justify its existence in an area of such public concern.

In the end the only way that the alcohol breath analyzer can be shown to be a successful product is from the number of sales recorded and whether or not production is sustained. If the law makes it even tougher by ruling that even one drink will lead to a driver being disqualified and heavily fined it will deter the majority while leaving a small minority who would be willing to accept the risks.

Each state in the United States has a law stipulating the maximum allowed blood alcohol content for someone seated at the wheel of a motored vehicle. In some states that maximum is 0.1%, and in other states it is 0.08%. Yet the methods that would allow law enforcement officers to monitor compliance with those stipulations did not always include a check that could be performed out in the “field.”

In fact, until 1954 law enforcement officers had to rely on a set of roadside sobriety tests.  Until Dr. Robert Berkenstein had invented the first alcohol breath analyzer police could subject a suspected drunk driver to only two unrefined examinations—an order to the  suspect to touch his or her nose, and a request that the same suspect walk in a straight line. 

Dr. Berkenstein, a member of the Indiana State Police, recognized his ability to answer a need by making use of known facts about alcohol. He realized that he could utilize the manner by which the body admits alcohol into the circulatory system. His observations and inventive skills produced a prototype of the present-day alcohol breath analyzer.

Exactly what observations led to the creation of the alcohol breath analyzer? They were observations made by many of the police who patrolled the roads of the U.S. Dr. Berkenstein noted that after someone drinks a beverage containing alcohol, then that drug has a rapid effect upon the drinker’s body. That rapidity is evidence of the fact that alcohol is absorbed in the stomach; it does not pass through the rest of the digestive tract.

Dr. Berkenstein also noted that alcohol is a very volatile substance, i.e. it dissolves quickly. That fact suggested that alcohol in the blood would easily evaporate from the blood. That fact pointed to the set of conditions that could be used for creation of an alcohol breath analyzer.

So, how do alcohol breath analyzers work? Alcohol from the blood evaporates into the air in the lungs. That alcohol-filled air is then exhaled. If the person exhaling that air is a drunken driver, then he or she can be asked to breathe into an alcohol breath analyzer. That is a device that offers quite definitive proof concerning the sobriety, or lack of sobriety, for any tested individual.

In the analyzer, the exhaled air passes through a mixture of sulfuric acid, potassium dichromate, silver nitrate and water. The silver nitrate catalyzes a chemical reaction. That reaction leads to production of chromium sulfate, potassium sulfate, acetic acid and water. The silver nitrate, the catalyst, remains unchanged.

The chromium sulfate has a distinctly green color. The intensity of that green color can be used to gage the amount of alcohol in the exhaled air. The amount of alcohol in the exhaled air is proportional to the blood alcohol content of the tested driver. That explains why the alcohol breath analyzer has the ability to assess a driver’s sobriety.

In the spring of 2006 the policemen in Culver City, CA waited anxiously for the results of the City-wide election. They sensed that those results might affect the progress toward expanded use of the deep lung breath analyzer. They knew the purpose of that analyzer, and they knew the income-base of one candidate for City Council.

One candidate, a charming man with an Irish accent, owned a bar. He obviously relied on the appeal of alcohol in order to earn a living. The police in Culver City did not expect him to purchase a car with a deep lung breath analyzer. In fact, they did not expect any member of the City Council to buy a car with such an analyzer.

The Culver City police did, however, know of City vehicles on which they hoped for installation of a deep lung breath analyzer. Still such installation would require taxpayer dollars. The Culver City police did not think that a Councilman with a bar would support a drive for money to cover such an installation.

By the same token, those police officers saw a real need for the deep lung breath analyzer. They could see the advantage to using such an analyzer on the City-owned vehicles. They could even appreciate the benefits of putting such an analyzer on the training vehicle at the high school.

The Culver City police wanted young teens to get a first-hand look at how technology can control the bad habits of every member of a society. The police knew that a car with a deep lung breath analyzer would never have a drunk at the wheel. They knew that such a car would not start if the driver had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.025% or higher

The police had approached one of the High School instructors about teaching the students about those in-car breath analyzers. They had spoken with an instructor who also had a class for Alcoholic Anonymous. The Culver City police wanted to alert any heavy drinkers to the fact that their ability to cover-up their inebriated state would not last for very long.

The existing cover-ups available to those who wanted to drink and drive relied on disguising the alcohol from a shallow region of the lungs. The BAC could easily be altered prior to the introduction of such a testing device. It would, however, be almost impossible to adulterate the actual BAC, as measured by a deep lung breath analyzer.

That’s why the police in Culver City hoped that the City Council would not contain a member who had the backing of a large number of bar visitors.

Using an alcohol breath test is the most common and easy way to find out if and how much alcohol a person has consumed. In all states there are drinking laws. An alcohol breath test, usually preceded by a field sobriety test, is the way that a policeman deduces whether or not you’ve been drinking, and if you’ve been drinking excessively before or while you were behind the wheel of a car. Once it is determined that you’ve been drinking an alcohol breath test will help to determine your alcohol blood content, or the amount of alcohol in your blood, which is used to distinguish the charge. The difference being, usually by one tenth of a percentage, that you are either legally drunk and driving, which results in a driving while intoxicated charge which gives the stiffest of penalties, or that you are charged with a driving under the influence charge, which means you are guilty of having driven after imbibing alcohol, but that you weren’t legally drunk.

In most states these days one is considered drunk if they blow a .10, and anything beneath that, a .008 for instance, means you will be charged with a DUI. In both cases, if you are found guilty, the penalties are severe. A DWI penalty can be life altering, requiring loss of license, substantial jail time, and large financial penalties. Of course drinking and driving accidents kill far too many people, most of whom are innocent bystanders, so penalties should be harsh. That being said, an alcohol breath test can be an inaccurate tests, and field sobriety test can be way off. You can appear drunk if you are fatigued. It is your right to not take an alcohol breath test, but in most cases the law then presumes that you are guilty.

The best way to know for certain if you have any doubts is to not drive. Get a cab or have a designated driver drive you around. If that is not possible, the second best thing you can do is administer your own alcohol breath test. They make digital alcohol breath tests and breath analyzers that range in price from fifty dollars to a few hundred dollars that are as accurate as any breath test that the police department or government agencies might use. Some jobs require that you take random alcohol breath tests and these are usually the devices used. The fact of the matter is that it’s wrong to drink and drive and can be dangerous to you and to those around you.

The best way to avoid trouble is to simply not drink and drive. Police and prosecutors, however, rely heavily, almost solely on alcohol breath tests when it comes to drinking and driving cases. If you are involved in a drinking and driving case, it is best to have all the info available to you about the matter. If you’ve been convicted before it could be imperative that you have your own way to self-administer an alcohol breath test. It could save lives.

The alcohol breath analyzer offers law enforcement officers a wonderful pairing of modern convenience and modern technology. The typical alcohol breath analyzer allows its user to obtain a reading within 10 seconds. Moreover, the user of the analyzer can expect to obtain about 500 readings from just one pair of batteries.

If the user of an alcohol breath analyzer finds that the batteries on the analyzer have been drained of energy, then that individual does not need to abandon hope of identifying another drunk driver. That individual can just plug the analyzer into the 12 V energy source that is available in a motor vehicle. Those 12 volts will re-energize the analyzer. Those 12 volts will allow the microelectronic mechanical systems (MEMS) in the typical alcohol breath analyzer to regain their sensitivity.

The MEMS in the present-day analyzer feature tiny silicon sensors. Those sensors are so tiny that they have been called “smart dust.” Those gas sensors have the ability to pick-up the specific signals from alcohol in exhaled air. Literature on the alcohol breath analyzer indicates that the specificity of the sensors can, however, be compromised.

Those sensors fail to work properly when the air to be analyzed contains a substantial amount of cigarette smoke. For that reason, the user of the alcohol breath analyzer should not smoke within the 10 minutes prior to the analysis. That, obviously, could put some constraints on effective use of the analyzer by law enforcement officers. For example, someone accused of driving while intoxicated could claim in court that he or she had been smoking in the vehicle just prior to interrogation by an officer of the law.

That fact shows how even the smartest “dust” could encounter difficulties, if used to make a case against a smart and clever individual who wanted to be able to drink and drive. In fact, the greatest benefit of the “smart dust” is its size. The small sensors can be packed into a very small device, one that a law enforcement officer would have no trouble carrying in a car, or on his person.

Present-day analyzers also offer the law enforcement officer an easier way to interpret their readings. Many analyzers sound an alarm when the reading falls above a certain level. Some analyzers also provide two types of measurements. Some give authorities both the subject’s blood alcohol content (BAC) and the amount of alcohol vapor in a liter of exhaled air.

Those features not only help the officer on patrol, they also aid the attorney who needs to prosecute against a drunk driver. They provide authorities with further proof that the man or woman behind the wheel had chosen to drive while still in an intoxicated state.