Drugs Which Affect Breath Alcohol Analysis

Pre-employment screening, officers who witness suspicious driving behavior and legal entities such as parole boards now utilize breath alcohol analysis as integral parts of their evaluation processes. As a result, knowledge of which drugs can affect breath alcohol analysis is increasingly relevant to the common citizen.

Significance

• Breath alcohol analysis through the use of a tool commonly known as a breathalyzer is an indirect way of measuring blood alcohol level. Employers, correction officials and police officers use this tool to restrict and measure a subject's viability to work, drive or be a member of free society. Like any test, variables such as drugs can skew the results.

History

• Breath alcohol analysis technology has been used in law enforcement since 1938. The first documented tool was known as a drunkometer. The breathalyzer as it is known today was first created in 1954 by Dr. Robert Borkenstein.

Compounds that can contribute to a false positive reading

• Diabetics may have increased acetone levels, which can be incorrectly measured as ethanol. Inhalers used in the treatment of asthma, called metered dose inhalers, can create false positives in tests. MTBE or methyl tert-butyl ether, a gasoline additive, is proven to cause false positives during breath alcohol analysis. As each of these compounds is recognized, testing procedures are created to rule out these compounds in new technology.

Misconceptions

• Common myths give credence to the effectiveness of gum, onions, breath mints and onions as being successful masking agents for limiting a breath alcohol test. All of these compounds have been proven to have no effect on the results of the test.

Fun Fact

• Subjects who hyperventilate for a period of 20 seconds have shown to lower their breath alcohol reading by approximately 32 percent. But, subjects who held their breath for 30 seconds increased their breath test result by about 28 percent.