What is a Breathalyzer?
A breathalyzer is a type of alcohol breath tester that indicates blood alcohol concentration (BAC) simply by breath analysis. Alcohol breathalyzers are useful devices for alerting and avoiding potential driving under the influence.
To be able to understand this process, let's consider some basic info about alcohol in our bodies, beginning with the first intake and continuing through its inclusion in our blood supply, to its appearance in the breath.
Any time you consume an alcoholic drink, the liquid travels swiftly from your mouth to your stomach and soon, to your small intestine. Although some alcohol can be absorbed into your blood through the mucous lining of the mouth and digestive system, most of it gets absorbed through the walls of the small intestine as soon as your stomach valve opens.
Alcohol, particularly in high levels, is able to delay the opening of this valve. This explains why, often, some individuals can rapidly ingest a few drinks and still show a low breath alcohol level for a while afterwards.
It’s in the top part of your intestinal tract, the duodenum, that alcohol gets absorbed into your blood. The duodenum walls are permeable and have a lot of blood vessels for taking in nutrients from digested food.
Most of the food you eat, like proteins, fats and carbs, need digestive enzymes for digestion to make the food molecules small enough to pass into the bloodstream. Since the molecules in a drink are in liquid form, they are already small and so need little time for digestion. This clarifies why the effects of alcohol are felt so rapidly when it is consumed on an empty stomach.
Soon after drinking an alcoholic beverage, your blood alcohol concentration rises. Once the percentage of alcohol in your bloodstream reaches .02 to .03%, you may begin to notice the soothing effects of alcohol. After the alcohol percent reaches .05 to .10% you will undergo diminished muscular control, slower reaction times, and reduced judgment.
It’s unlawful and hazardous to operate a vehicle with these blood alcohol levels. The government mandated maximum is now .08% in all states. Therefore if your blood alcohol concentration is .08% or over and you drive, you could be arrested for a DUI, go to jail, lose your license, pay numerous fines, etc. Not a pretty picture.
The content of alcohol in exhaled lung air samples directly reflects the concentration of it in your blood. If you wish to steer clear of jail and prevent all the other expenses associated with driving under the influence, you should be aware of the BAC limits. If you drink routinely, a personal breathalyzer could be a great tool to help you steer clear of trouble.
These days you’ll find a lot of low-priced breathalyzers on the market. These digital devices have high testing accuracy because of the advanced semiconductor sensors, which are quite responsive to alcohol samples.
Digital alcohol testers also have uniform reproducibility, which means you will get accurate results with subsequent tests. Many of these products also have quick response times, which means your results are almost immediate.
This kind of breathalyzer will tell you how much alcohol it will take to elevate your blood-alcohol level to unsafe levels. There are various components that affect alcohol impairment, so everybody's reaction to this drug will vary.
Personal breathalyzers can help you and your friends or relatives make better decisions about driving after drinking and they might even save your life.
Resources
Breathalyzers.net – distributes several different hand-held breathalyzers, including the highly regarded AlcoMate Digital hand-held unit for consumers, and the Lifeloc FC for professional use.
