Current Spec. CMI Intoxilyzer 5000 and 8000 Machines Do Not Distinguish Ethanol With Sufficient Specificity To Meet The Legal Standard Of Beyond A Reasonable Doubt

In plain english David Rosenbloom an experienced Utah DUI Lawyer summarizes Bell, et al., Diethyl Ether Interference with Infrared Breath Analysis, 16 Journal of Analytical Toxicology (1992)

Dave's Plain Language Analysis / Synopsis: Intoxilyzers are well known to have specificity difficulties (difficulty distinguishing between ethanol -alcohol, and other similarly sized molecules which can fool the machine into a high false positive) due to the large amount of substances having the same wavelength interference as ethanol molecules; this is why every machine has more than just the single "filter" needed to detect ethanol; Intox 5000's in Utah have three (3) and Intox 5000's have (5); with each machine having one (1) filter dedicated to detecting acetone size molecules, which are just two microns away from ethanol molecules. Diethyl ether interfered with breathtests at 9.5 microns. Diethyl ether is found in auto products, used to manufacture plastics and smokeless gunpowder.

ARTICLE
Diethyl ether vapor may substantially interfere with breath alcohol analysis by instruments based on infrared absorption at 9.5 microns. Exposure of two volunteers simultaneously to diethyl ether vapor for one hour followed immediately by breath tests on the Draeger Alcotest 7110, Siemens Alcomat V5.2F, and Seres Ethylometre 679T produced apparent alcohol readings in one subject of 0.4, 0.1, and 0.1 g/100 mL of blood respectively. Positive readings persisted in this subject for more than 3 hours. The second subject produced much lower readings of 0.03, 0.01, and 0.00, respectively. Readings persisted with the Alcotest 7110 for one hour. Gas chromatographic analyses of blood and breath samples confirmed that these readings were caused by diethyl ether and not ethanol. The blood concentration of diethyl ether in Subject A immediately after exposure was 25 mg/L. This level produced no clinically detectable neurological changes in the subject.

Abstract courtesy of www.pubmed.org - A service of the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health
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Bosch, Xavier, Using Asthma Inhalers Can Give False Positive Results in Breath Tests, 324 British Medical Journal, 756 (2002)

Dave's Plain Language Analysis / Synopsis: Inhalers without ethanol produced false positives for ethanol when subjects given breath tests within 10 minutes. Dr. Ignacio-Garcia suggests that the propellants are the cause.
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Brick, Diabetes, Breath Acetone and Breathalyzer Accuracy: A Case Study, 9 (1) Alcohol, Drugs and Driving (1993)

In this case study, blood glucose and breath alcohol were measured and behavioral observations were made of a hypoglycemic 42-year-old male diabetic immediately prior to receiving insulin treatment. The subject's blood glucose levels ranged from 53 mg/dL to less than 40 mg/dL. Near simultaneous Breathalyzer test results were generally less than .01%. The results suggest that although hypoglycemia in diabetics produces behavioral symptoms of gross alcohol intoxications, even extreme physiological changes in blood chemistry do not alter the results of a Breathalyzer test by more than .01%.

Dave's Plain Language Analysis / Synopsis: Ketones in breath = erroneous high BAC, leading to high false positives in diabetics and some hypoglycemics.200 compounds found in breath; acetone can be found on the breath of diabetics and persons loosing ½ pound per week.
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Caldwell & Kim, The Response of the Intoxilyzer 5000 to Five Potential Interfering Substances, 42 (6) Journal of Forensic Sciences 1080,(1997)

A study was conducted of potential vapor phase interferents which could be present on human breath and also be capable of inducing a false-positive response for ethanol on the evidential infrared-based breath testing device, the Intoxilyzer-5000. This involved preparation and validation of a range of vapor standards, which were introduced to the instrument using a dynamic flow double-bubbler system. Potential interferents were chosen on the basis of both their infrared signatures and their general availability, and included toluene, m-xylene, o-xylene, methanol and isopropanol. All compounds tested were found to be capable of inducing false-positive readings for ethanol in a highly reproducible manner, as a result of which it has been possible to derive precise least-squares equations describing the ethanol readout expected for any given blood concentration of toluene, m-xylene, o-xylene, methanol and isopropanol. The likelihood of an interference compromising the integrity of the analysis is related to both the toxicological significance and prevalence of a given blood concentration of each solvent, and the point at which the instrumental interference light is triggered in each case.

Abstract courtesy of www.pubmed.org - A service of the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health
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Giguiere, Lewis, Baselt, Chang, Lacquer fumes and the Intoxilyzer, 12 Journal of Analytical Toxicology 168, 168 (1988)

Dave's Plain Language Analysis / Synopsis: Painter blows a .075 on Intoxilizer after painting with lacquer fumes for 20 minutes with mask. Then another ten minutes without mask blew .48
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Janhanen, Baraona, Hiyakawa, and Lieber, Origin of Breath Acetaldehyde During Ehtanol Oxidation: Effects of Long-Term Cigarette Smoking, 100 Journal of Laboratory Clinical Medicine 908 (1982)

Dave's Plain Language Analysis / Synopsis: Acetaldehyde greater than would be expected if just passing from liver to lungs via blood.
Acetaldehyde was greater in the lungs for smokers than non smokers.

ARTICLE
Oropharyngeal microflora and lung microcosms can produce acetaldehyde from ethanol. Therefore we evaluated the suitability of breath acetaldehyde analysis to estimate blood acetaldehyde. We found that in individuals who develop high acetaldehyde concentration (over 50 uM) after alcohol ingestion (such as oriental "flushers"), the acetaldehyde concentration in end-expiratory air reflects the blood levels. However, in the majority of non-Oriental subjects who develop very small concentrations of acetaldehyde in the blood (less than 5 uM), the production of acetaldehyde in the respiratory tract accounted for most of the acetaldehyde present in end-expiratory samples. Under the latter conditions, breath acetaldehyde did not correlate with blood levels. The production of acetaldehyde form ethanol in the respiratory tract was marked exaggerated in long-term cigarette smokers. Rinsing the oropharyngeal cavity with pyrazole (an alcohol dehydrogenase inhibitor) prior to sampling reduced, but did not eliminate, the local contribution to breath acetaldehyde, especially in smokers. In baboons, blood acetaldehyde could be accurately estimated from breath analysis only when the upper respiratory tract was completely excluded by collecting the expired air through an endotracheal tube. Thus, to assess blood acetaldehyde, breath acetaldehyde measurements cannot be substituted for direct measurements, except for those few conditions known to be associated with very high blood levels.
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Characterization of Human Expired Air: A Promising Investigation and Diagnostic Technique, 15 Journal of Chromatographic Science 239 (1977), Krotosyynski, Gabriel, O'Neil & Claudio

Dave's Plain Language Analysis / Synopsis: 28 different subjects / 102 various organic compounds 70% of compounds common to 76% of population studied; meaning that perhaps as much as 50% of the population have substances on their breath that can "fool" the machine into reporting high breath alcohol concentrations.

ARTICLE
Expired air samples have been collected from a carefully selected population of normal healthy human subjects under controlled experimental conditions. The samples were concentrated and analyzed by quantitative, reproducible and sensitive techniques which resulted in well-defined composite compositional and occurrence profiles of the organic constituents present in normal expired air. The composite profiles provide valuable baseline information upon which suitable correlation studies may be advanced toward the use of human expired air for diagnostic purposes.

Abstract courtesy of www.pubmed.org - A service of the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health
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Labianca, How Specific for Ethanol is Breath-Alcohol Analysis Based on Absorption of IR Radiation at 9.5 um? 16 Journal of Analytical Toxicology 404, 405 (Nov.-Dec. 1992)

Dave's Plain Language Analysis / Synopsis: Breath testing lacks of specificity because thousands of organic molecules that contain the methyl group and the corresponding carbon-hydrogen bond absorb the light producing false positives.

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Ethanol Content of Various Foods and Soft Drinks and their Potential for Interference with a Breath-Alcohol Test, 22 Journal of Analytical Toxicology 181 (1988), Logan & Distefano.

Dave's Plain Language Analysis / Synopsis: Datamaster Intoxilyzer read up to .046 on bread etc. The mouth alcohol Slope detector failed.

ARTICLE

A variety of breads and soft drinks were tested and found to contain low concentrations of alcohol. The potential for these products to generate false readings on an evidential breath-alcohol instrument was evaluated. Alcohol-free subjects ingested these products and then provided breath samples into DataMaster. It was found that breath samples provided immediately after consumption of some of these products, or with them still present in the mouth, did produce low levels of apparent breath alcohol, which may or may not be rejected as invalid by the breath-test instrument. If the subject swallowed or expectorated the food or beverage and then observe a 15 min deprivation period during which nothing was introduced into the mouth, the apparent effect was eliminated. These findings emphasize the need for the mandatory pretest alcohol-deprivation period and the benefits of duplicate breath sampling.

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Stowell, et al., A Reinvestigation of the Usefulness of Breath Analysis in the Determination of Blood Acetaldehyde Concentrations, 8 Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 442 (1984)

Dave's Plain Language Analysis / Synopsis: Acetaldehyde was coming not from the liver but the lungs! Showing BAC 30 times higher than actual result.

Human volunteers were given ethanol (0.4 g/kg) either intravenous or per os. They were also given ethanol (0.2 g/kg) intravenous 4 hr after receiving a dose of 50 mg citrated calcium carbimide, an aldehyde dehydrogenase inhibitor. During the first hour after starting the administration of ethanol, ethanol and acetaldehyde concentrations were determined in expired air, blood from the right atrium, arterial blood, and venous blood. In the absence of calcium carbimide treatment, the respective maximal blood acetaldehyde concentrations were (range): 6-30 microM (calculated from breath analysis using a blood:breath partition ratio of 190 for acetaldehyde); 0-3.5 microM (right atrium blood); and 0 microM (arterial and venous blood). After calcium carbimide treatment, the maximal blood acetaldehyde concentrations were 10-220 microM (calculated from concentrations in expired air), 38-280 microM (right atrium), 31-250 microM (arterial blood), and 7-186 microM (venous blood). With aldehyde dehydrogenase inhibition, a clear correlation existed between breath concentrations and blood concentrations. Without this inhibition, no such correlation was found. A clear arterio-venous difference was seen for acetaldehyde concentrations while they were artificially elevated by calcium carbimide. Our study suggests that factors other than the equilibration of acetaldehyde between alveolar air and pulmonary blood are of great importance in determining the concentration of acetaldehyde in expired air.

Abstract courtesy of www.pubmed.org - A service of the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health
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