Citation

Picton WR. Proc. Int. Counc. Alcohol Drugs Traffic Safety Conf. 1981; 1981: 648-662.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1981, The author(s) and the Council, Publisher International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Remote breath testing for blood alcohol concentration (BAC) has been used intermittently over several years for research and forensic purposes. This paper discusses some characteristics of the Forrester indium method of breath encapsulation. Measurements of zero and 14 day preserved breath specimens are compared with direct blood and breath analysis. Effects of several environmental changes on the measurement of preserved BAC are examined. Direct BAC determinations from blood samples averaged 9% greater than breathalyzer and gc intoximeter measurements. Ninety percent of paired breathalyzer and "14 day preserved in indium" BAC measurements fell within + or - 20 mg/100 ml. (n=41, r=.984). The bac's of 98% of breath samples encapsulated 14 days were measured within + or - 20 mg/100 ml of samples from the same source encapsulated for less than 24 hrs. Analyses of segments of the same tubes of 14 day encapsulated breath at two separate laboratories agreed within + or - 20 mg/100 ml. Errors due to inter- and intra-field sampler effects are reported. Some evidential implications of the indium encapsulation system are discussed. (TRRL)