How
Breathalyzers Work
(and Why They Don't)
Information
courtesy of Lawrence Taylor - DUIblog
Did
you ever wonder how breathalyzers work? There is a website which
will give you a pretty fair idea. But first, let's clear up some
confusion....
There
are many different kinds of "breathalyzers" -- or, more
accurately, there are many kinds of breath testing devices. The
first of the modern breath testers, manufactured by Smith and Wesson
many years ago (yes, that Smith and Wesson), was called the Breathalyzer.
Since then, various manufacturers have recognized the growing market
and come out with their own models, bearing such names as Intoxilyzer,
Intoximeter, DataMaster, AlcoSensor, Alcotest and so on; most of
these products have been produced in different model versions, such
as the Intoxilyer 4011, 5000 and 8000. To deal with the confusion,
the term "breathalyzer" came to be used as a generic term
for any breath testing instrument. (To confuse things further, a
German company -- Draeger -- bought the rights to the Breathalyzer
brand and have sometimes used that name in some of their models.)
Most
of these are evidentiary machines -- that is, larger machines generally
kept at the station whose test results are used in evidence. Others
are smaller, handheld units carried by officers in the field; these
are less accurate, and are usually used as a field sobriety test
to help determine whether to arrest a suspect.
The
original Breathalyzer operated using a wet chemical method of analysis,
employing a disposable glass ampoule of chemicals. Although still
occasionally found in law enforcement, this relatively primitive
technology was replaced in later machines by infrared spectroscopy,
gas chromatography or, mainly in handheld units, fuel cell analysis;
a couple of the more recent machines use a combination of infrared
and fuel cell.
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