I got drunk the other night. I was boogling to Aswad. It was research. Research into using a new breathalyser from Alcosense. The Alcosense Pro.
I wouldn’t call myself a hard drinker anymore. There were times in my student days that I could put a few units of vodka away and then some. Counted in units, I’d have to say that I couldn’t tell you how many. I measured drinks to taste, not shot.
The morning after was always the tricky one. Can I drive? Up until around 10 or so years ago, all that was available were small single-use kits. They worked out expensive. What we needed was a portable handheld device like that used by the Police force. That was even more expensive.
Alcosense came onto the market with several devices. Over the years they have perfected and designed units that have become more and more useable.
The Science
This is the fun part. The Pro uses fuel cell technology. This works differently to the Alcosense budget range of breathalysers by an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel: alcohol and an oxidizing agent into electricity through a pair of redox reactions, where the oxidation states of atoms are changed. The more alcohol that comes in contact in gas form with a fuel cell sensor, the more electrical current the fuel cell sensor will produce.
By measuring the current produced, the machine can calculate the amount of alcohol in a breath sample. Fuel cell sensors vary quite wildly in quality, as the primary ingredient in the ethanol fuel cell is platinum; the most expensive metal in the world.
A good quality fuel cell is capable of producing highly accurate readings and is more stable over time than a semi-conductor breathalyser fitted into their budget ranges. This is the sensor of choice for Police hand-held devices.
The Semi-conductor breathalysers use a sensor with a semi-conductor element inside. A semiconductor is a material that changes its properties of electrical resistance when it is heated. The difference in electrical resistance is measured and an alcohol reading can be calculated from this. The technology is cheaper than fuel cell, but also not quite as accurate and readings can “drift” further with time.
User Ease
One thing you want with a machine you’ll be using either intoxicated or wishing last night never happened is ease of use.
Once set up, it is just a case of popping in the blow tube, waiting for the machine to ready itself and then blowing. If there is one thing where the device could be better would be for the blow tube to be already there. They are small, clear and tend to disappear when you’re looking for them.
With regards to the set-up, the Pro gives you the option of setting your alcohol limit or allowing the machine to use the presets of 40 selected countries or your own limits. Countries on the list include the UAE and Other. Never seen Other in the Eurovision. What this allows you to do is set the limits. The UAE is zero-tolerance. It is recommended that you change the limits of the machine to the country you are visiting. It’s all very intuitive following the simple set-up menu.
Know Your Limits
Having blown into the machine when over the limit, it can roughly work out how many hours it will be before you are sober. This doesn’t take into account how your body deals with alcohol but the device will set an alarm to perform a retest. Nice touch that. It is however recommended that you don’t use the machine for up to 90 minutes after drinking. It will give a widely inaccurate result and this can damage the fuel cell.
This is where I got confused between breath and alcohol limits. The UK has a 0.08% Blood Alcohol Limit or 0.35mg/L for breath limit. This is 80 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood or 0.35 milligrams per litre of breath. The machine will show you 2 percentages. It is probably easier to set it to a percentage of blood with than Per Mille ‘‰’
If you are to get stopped, confusing the machine or the Police with a copper coin in your mouth doesn’t work. I did try it and I don’t recommend you do either. Copper coins are not as nice as the chocolate variety. My face of disgust would have given me up to the Police I can tell you.
The Statistics
“Studies show people drinking more alcohol since Covid struck, particularly at home – so this increases the danger of ‘morning after’ driving with alcohol still in your system,” comments Hunter Abbott, MD of AlcoSense.
“Even with just 0.05mg/L of alcohol in breath (one-seventh of the English/Welsh limit), you’re 37% more likely to be involved in a fatal accident than when sober.
“If in any doubt, you should self-test with a personal breathalyser to ensure you’re completely clear of alcohol before getting behind the wheel”.
A recent report by Public Health England highlighted a 25% increase in alcohol sales in shops and supermarkets between 2020 and 2019, suggesting a steep escalation in home drinking.
Nationally, the number of killed or seriously injured drink-drive casualties last year was 2,050 – an increase of 8% on the previous year and the highest level since 2011. The figure includes 230 fatalities where the motorist was over the drink-drive limit.
Yearly Service and a Lesson
As with all unit measuring devices, it is important to have it calibrated. Diabetic blood measuring equipment I use at work needs quality control once a week. For £24.99 Alcosense will take your device, recalibrate it and send it back. This is recommended yearly and the machine will alert you to when this is required.
For years we’ve been using my Alcosense Elite. A small unit that was bought as new old stock about 10 years ago. It has never been calibrated. Even from new, we had our doubts about its accuracy. It would take a hell of a lot to still be over the limit the next day.
If anything this has taught me not to buy something essential cheaply from eBay. If you had to buy a kidney, you wouldn’t buy cheap would you?
And now for the recommendation. You can’t go wrong with any of the devices Alcosense has to offer. However, from what I have read in my drunken research, I would recommend anything with the fuel cell tech included. The devices themselves are nice to use, have the added features of a pre-set country, will give you better information and technology that is known to be far superior in its accuracy.
Drink driving in the UK is an instant disqualification, up to 3 months imprisonment and a fine of up to £2500. All for the sake of a good quality device that could have given you information you needed better than “can l walk straight?” I’ll stick to my handheld device thanks.