Overview
A breathalyzer is, as the name suggests, a tool that analyzes one’s breath to estimate blood alcohol concentration (BAC).
History and Etymology
The idea that something about alcohol lingers on the breath after drinking is as old as drinking itself. I mean, it’s hard to ignore the odors of a drunk person thinking they’re whispering secrets into your ears. It was generally assumed though that alcohol was still coating someone’s mouth and throat. Francis Anstie discovered in 1847 that alcohol is actively excreted by the lungs as vapor after traveling to the bloodstream, meaning it was a byproduct of respiration rather than just residually present in the mouth. In the 1910s, Francis Gano Benedict found quantitative evidence for a direct relationship between BAC and the concentration of alcohol vapor in air from lungs. Emil Bogen linked breath samples themselves to BAC in 1927.
Various entrepreneurs have attempted to leverage these discoveries to test someone’s intoxication levels. In 1931, Rolla N. Harger invented a device called the “Drunkometer” which captured one’s breath in a balloon and measured intoxication through color changes in a purple chemical solution. Robert F. Borkenstein, an Indiana State Police captain, patented the Breathalyzer in 1954 to help law enforcement agents estimate BAC in the field. Through the latter half of the 20th century, breathalyzers began incorporating technology that replaced color reactions with infrared spectroscopy, gas chromatography, fuel cell sensors with electric currents, and micro-sensors linked to smartphones and vehicle ignitions.
Breathalyzers are a standard protocol in treatment facilities to monitor the sobriety of patients. It’s also a great way for you to monitor how out of shape you are and how much your lungs hate you for inhaling drugs. It’s good to be aware though that you can set off the breathalyzer with drinks like kombucha that aren’t always labeled as containing alcohol, and you probably have no way of proving either that you didn’t intend on consuming enough to be intoxicated or that you didn’t sneak in a real drink with it. It’s best to exercise a lot of caution when it comes to fermented fruits. After all, lots of animals have a history of getting loaded that way.