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Breath testing machines are faulty in the way they analyze the air that is introduced to it. A California DUI defense lawyer who realizes the defects of a "Breathalyzer" can attack the unreliable results with considerable success. A major defect of most methods of blood-alcohol analysis is the failure to distinguish ethanol (also referred to as ethyl alcohol) from other chemical compounds. Such methods are not specific for ethanol: They will detect other compounds as well, identifying any of them as "ethanol". In other-words, a client who has little or no ethanol in his body could be reported as having high "blood-alcohol" content. This defect is known as non-specificity and it is most pronounced in the use of infrared breath analyzing instruments (the most common breath testing machines used today). Although they all suffer from this problem, the infrared models give false readings due to non-specificity more often then most. The reason for this is most breath machines are not programmed to detect ethyl alcohol (ethanol) from other compounds, but instead only a part of that molecule — the methyl group. The infrared light is designed to be absorbed by the methyl group resulting in the eventual blood-alcohol reading. Thus the "Breathalyzer" will assume every methyl group it detects is an ethyl alcohol compound. The fact is there are numerous compounds that contain the methyl group, including:
In fact, recent studies have shown that the human breath alone can contain over one hundred chemical compounds at any given moment. More importantly, 80 percent of these compounds contain methyl groups, which means the infrared breath machine will detect each of these as ethanol. |
Copyright 2001 - 2008 |
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Furthermore, the machine detects alcohol through "additive absorption" — meaning the more methyl groups it detects through their absorbing the infrared rays the higher the blood-alcohol reading will be. In other words, all of the non-alcoholic compounds on the breath will have a cumulative effect—that is, the errors will be added one on top of the other. How prevalent are chemicals in the breath that can register on breath analyzing machines? There are many common causes of non-specific analysis, including for example: severe dieting or fasting; inhaling glue or paint fumes; eating bread or bread products; inhaling lacquer or gasoline fumes; and untreated diabetes. Long-term smokers are more likely to have higher blood-alcohol readings due to a greater amount of acetaldehyde in the lungs, and alcoholics can have 5 to 55 times higher levels of acetaldehyde in their breath or blood than that in non-alcoholics. There have been many recognized studies on the existence of chemical compounds on the breath, all concluding that many compounds do exist naturally on the human breath, including compounds that contain the methyl group. For further information see, BAC Level Studies. Alcohol and the Body Facts on Tap Alcohol Breathalyzers Information from the manufacturer about one of the breath analyzing instruments used by California law enforcement. Drunk Driving Legal Center Diabetes and False Breath Alcohol Test Results |
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