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The Effect of Alcohol‐Based Hand Sanitizer Vapors on Evidential Breath Alcohol Test Results
Author(s) -
Strawsine Ellen,
Lutmer Brian
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/1556-4029.13691
Subject(s) - hand sanitizer , alcohol , inhalation , breath test , ethanol , alcohol intoxication , medicine , poison control , chromatography , anesthesia , toxicology , chemistry , injury prevention , medical emergency , pathology , biochemistry , biology , helicobacter pylori
This study was undertaken to determine if the application of alcohol‐based hand sanitizers ( ABHS s) to the hands of a breath test operator will affect the results obtained on evidential breath alcohol instruments ( EBT s). This study obtained breath samples on three different EBT s immediately after application of either gel or foam ABHS to the operator's hands. A small, but significant, number of initial analyses (13 of 130, 10%) resulted in positive breath alcohol concentrations, while 41 samples (31.5%) resulted in a status code. These status codes were caused by ethanol vapors either in the room air or their inhalation by the subject, thereby causing a mouth alcohol effect. Replicate subject samples did not yield any consecutive positive numeric results. As ABHS application can cause a transitory mouth alcohol effect via inhalation of ABHS vapors, EBT operators should forego the use of ABHS in the 15 min preceding subject testing.