Abstract
Alcohol breath testing on a larger scale will save lives. Alcohol abuse is a major contributor to death and disease. Alcohol intake affects the human body by significantly longer response time to external stimuli. In situations where the senses need to be on alert this delay can be the difference between life and death. To make the alcohol breath test more available in everyday use, the mouthpiece has been removed. Instead, the exhaled alcohol is measured directly in a diluted sample. The dilution can be accounted for by simultaneous measurement of an endogenous tracer gas. Because of the lack of a mouthpiece several additional factors influence the alcohol measurement, e.g. the obvious lower abundance of analyte gas, shorter time of analysis and physiological aspects of the tracer gas. My studies include sensor development and validation through laboratory experiments as well as human subject studies. Several sensor parameters are crucial for the functionality of the alcohol detection system and are in need of careful investigation. Human behaviour and physiology also needs further understanding. A better understanding of the system provides vital knowledge for the design of smarter algorithms. Planning, conducting and evaluation of these studies lie within the scope of the licentiate thesis.
Highlights
Alcohol misuse remains a major health issue and a dominant cause of serious traffic accidents in almost all societies
We have demonstrated methods for contactless determination of breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) [12,13] in screening applications where sobriety is expected to be the norm
Results are presented from tests performed on prototype devices using both artificial and human breath
Summary
Alcohol misuse remains a major health issue and a dominant cause of serious traffic accidents in almost all societies. Many informative and persuasive initiatives have been undertaken. Their importance is beyond dispute, but a holistic approach including clever management, adequate resources, and sustainability, is required for them to be maximally effective [1]. The availability of adequate methods and devices to determine breath alcohol on a massive scale is needed. Breath alcohol analysis methodology has developed steadily during recent decades. The physiological rationale for replacing blood analysis with breath analysis is widely recognized [2,3] and some countries have even introduced breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) to drunk driving legislation [4]
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