Know the Evolution of Breathalyzers in the World

 

Breathalyzers

Breathalyzers are devices that test blood alcohol levels through the breath of a person. These devices are used in probation departments, police departments, detention facilities, and the commercial sector. A Breathalyzers (a portmanteau of breath and analyzer/analyser) is a device that uses a breath sample to estimate blood alcohol content (BAC) or to detect viruses or diseases. The name is a genericized trademark of the Breathalyzer brand of instruments developed in the 1950s by inventor Robert Frank Borkenstein. Emil Bogen discovered in a 1927 paper that collected air in a football bladder and then tested it for traces of alcohol that the alcohol content of 2 litres of expired air was slightly higher than that of 1 cc of urine.  However, research into the possibilities of using breath to test for alcohol in a person's body dates as far back as 1874, when Francis E. Anstie made the observation that small amounts of alcohol were excreted in breath.

Robert Frank Borkenstein (1912-2002) was an Indiana State Police captain in 1954 and later a professor at Indiana University Bloomington. To determine alcohol concentrations, his Breathalyzer used chemical oxidation and photometry. Subsequent Breathalyzers have primarily used infrared spectroscopy, though this method is susceptible to invalid results based on ambient air temperature, device temperature, and subject body temperature, depending on the specificity of the readings and how they correlate with one's BAC measured via a voluntary blood draw. According to this article, the invention of the Breathalyzer provided law enforcement with an orally-invasive test that provided immediate results to determine an individual's breath alcohol concentration at the time of testing, based on consistently faulty samples.

Bill Ducie and Tom Parry Jones created and marketed the first electronic breathalyser in Britain in 1967. Lion Laboratories was established in Cardiff. Ducie worked as a chartered electrical engineer, and Tom Parry Jones taught at UWIST. The Road Safety Act of 1967 established the first legally enforceable maximum blood alcohol level for drivers in the UK, above which driving a motor vehicle became an offence; and it also established the roadside breathalyser, which was made available to police forces across the country.

Lion Laboratories' Alcolyser breathalyser, which included crystal-filled tubes that changed colour above a certain level of alcohol in the breath, was approved for police use in 1979. In 1980, Lion Laboratories received the Queen's Award for Technological Achievement for the product, which was then marketed globally. In 1983, the Lion Intoximeter 3000 replaced the Alcolyser, and later, the Lion Alcolmeter and Lion Intoxilyser. Later models used a fuel cell alcohol sensor rather than crystals, resulting in a more reliable curbside test and eliminating the need for blood or urine samples to be collected at a police station. Lion Laboratories was sold to the American company MPD, Inc. in 1991.