Citation

Rudram DA. Proc. Int. Counc. Alcohol Drugs Traffic Safety Conf. 1981; 1981: 528-541.

Copyright

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

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

With the introduction of a statutory blood alcohol level in the United Kingdom a manual gas chromatographic method of analysis was adopted. By 1972 this system was approaching saturation at the metropolitan police laboratory and a decision to automate was made. The original automatic system was based on head-space gas chromatography and a dedicated processor designed solely for chromatographic work. The analytical technique adopted was a success from the start but the limitations and inflexibility of the processor rapidly became apparent. In 1977 the "metpol" system based on instems datachrome 2 was installed. This is built around a Dec pdp 11.05 computer and provides full control of the head-space gas chromatographs. The system detects and measures the gc peaks, calculates the level of ethanol in the sample and collates duplicate determinations. Adaptations to the original system have provided considerable storage facilities and some statistics are now collected automatically. The most recent modifications provide a sophisticated form of automatic sample identification. (TRRL)