The Draeger Alcotest 9510 measures alcohol in exhaled breath using two technologies: infrared light absorption and electron production from ethanol oxidation. While the technologies are complex, they are worth understanding to evaluate the accuracy of the breath alcohol measurement and determine how much weight should be placed on the breath alcohol value.

The goal of this discussion is to provide a scientific understanding on the measurement technologies and to provide simple techniques for evaluating the breath alcohol measurement using data generated from the breath test. The majority of time will be spent on data gathering, interpretation, and analysis. Data gathering from the WSP website and through public disclosure requests will be presented. In simple terms, the meaning and context of this raw data will be provided. Attendees will learn how to plot data and perform simple calculations. Scenarios for where these analyses can be effective will be discussed.

Although the Draeger breath test device has been deployed throughout Washington, a variety of issues concerning its operation remain unresolved. These issues include the 15-minute waiting period, difference between the alcohol concentration on the breath test ticket relative to internal data, and mouth alcohol detection using slope detection. The current understanding and the impact of these issues on accurate breath alcohol measurement will be discussed with an emphasis on how these may affect particular breath test scenarios.

Presented by Joseph C. Anderson, PhD, owner of Anderson Bioscience

To register for this CLE, email wda@defensenet.org with “9510” in the subject line.