Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 2 April 1971:
Vol. 172. no. 3978, pp. 57 - 59
DOI: 10.1126/science.172.3978.57
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Alcohol Breath Tests: Gross Errors in Current Methods of Measuring Alveolar Gas Concentrations

N. Herbert Spector 1

1 Laboratoire de Physiologie, Faculté de Médecine, Universite de Lyon, Lyon, France

Transitory contact of ethanol with the mucous membranes of the mouth or nasal passages, or both, is sufficient to drastically alter measurements of concentrations of ethanol in so-called "alveolar" gas for more than 20 minutes after such contact. Various concentrations of ethanol were taken into the mouth by human subjects and were expectorated. Readings of so-called "blood alcohol" were then taken at short intervals by means of the Breathalyzer® and were continued up to 1 hour after exposure. These readings were compared with blood-alcohol concentrations measured by quantitative chemical analysis of venous blood. When true concentrations of blood alcohol were at or close to zero (plus possible error of 0.0001 gram per 100 milliliters), readings of greater than 0.40 gram per 100 milliliters were obtained on the Breathalyzer. Repeated mouth washing and gargling with water, changes in the nature of the solvent, and stomach loading each had only a slight effect in diminishing these errors.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Breath Alcohol After Using Mouthwash.
O. M. Brown (1994)
JAMA 271, 1400-1401
   Abstract »    PDF »
Breath Tests for Determining Alcohol in the Blood: Science-society interactions are seen in microcosm in the use of breath alcohol tests in the courtroom.
W. S. Lovell (1972)
Science 178, 264-272
   Abstract »    PDF »
Technological "Shortcuts" to Social Change.
A. Etzioni and R. Remp (1972)
Science 175, 31-38
   PDF »
Breath Test Machines.
N. H. Spector (1971)
Science 174, 772-774
   PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)