portable-breathalyzer

A portable breathalyzer offers more than just a way for the drinker to detect the moment when his addiction has put him in need of a designated driver. A portable breathalyzer can also allow a host or hostess to assess the condition of party guests as they are about to depart. If those guests all have a high BAC, then the wise host or hostess might counsel the guests to reach home by taking a taxi, or by finding a sober guest at the party, someone who shows a willingness to give them a ride. A good hostess does not want to hear that a police officer was, on that very night, testing the breath of one of the party guests.

When the Food and Drug Administration reviews a testing device, then it looks at two different characteristics. First, it determines whether or not that device performs effectively, i.e. does it do what it claims to do. For example, during the review of a portable breathalyzer, the FDA would check to make sure that the device could detect even low levels of alcohol. In addition, it would examine how efficiently the device could translate detected alcohol in the breath into a figure for the subject’s blood alcohol content (BAC)

Once the FDA has established the efficiency of the tested device, then it would look for any possible risks to the users of that device. Someone planning to use a portable breathalyzer should not feel safe about using that device, unless it has been approved by the FDA.  Yet FDA approval alone does not guarantee that a device has superior qualities. What, then, should one look for a in portable breathalyzer? In order to answer that question, the following article will look at the characteristics of the Alcohawk, a very popular breathalyzer that is easily transported from one location to the next.

First, the following examination of the Alcohawk will focus on the size of the device. It is almost as thin as a deck of cards, and its other dimensions are much like those of a standard card deck. In other words, it is easy to carry around.  The ease with which the Alcohawk can be transported has motivated many law enforcement agencies to initiate use of the device. Corrections officers, detectives and patrol officers in many cities have all received an Alcohawk to carry with them on the job. Even the U.S. Department of Transportation has indicated that the Alcohawk rates number one among its list of preferred portable breathalyzers.

Still, the Alcohawk has more than size calling-out to the men and women, who’ve been asked by federal or state officials to purchase a new portable breathalyzer. The Alcohawk displays an exact figure on its screen. It does not ask the user of the device to be content with an average BAC. Moreover, that accurate figure appears on the device’s display screen within 5 seconds after the subject has breathed on the portable detection equipment.

If the user of the Alcohawk wants to repeat the test, then he or she must wait only 2 minutes for the device to “recover.” That rapid recovery represents yet another reason for the popularity of the Alcohawk. And the warm-up time for the Alcohawk is even shorter than the recovery time. The user of that portable breathalyzer must wait only 20 seconds for the device to signal that it is ready to perform in a manner consistent with its known efficiency.

All of the above characteristics increase the appeal of a device that comes with 5 washable mouthpieces, a 9V battery and a DC car power adapter.