The Shocking Truth Behind ‘Fake’ Breathalysers That Could End Up Costing Lives

• Low cost breathalysers don’t work in real-life situations
• Inaccurate, inconsistent and incapable of trustworthy results
• Some indicate safe when the driver is actually over the limit
• Urgent calls for industry regulation; none are police-approved

With the Christmas party season starting, Parker’s is warning anyone thinking of using a do-it-yourself breathalyser to think again or risk losing their license – or worse – their lives.

The astounding research into the self testing devices was carried out by Parker’s with the help of West Yorkshire Police and Medacx, suppliers of breathalysers to around 20% of UK police forces. The results have revealed that these devices are completely unreliable which means that many drivers may be mislead into driving whilst over the limit this Christmas.

Parker’s tested a range of the inexpensive devices, which are widely available online, at markets, car boot sales and even in petrol stations, by breathalysing someone just over the legal drink drive limit and comparing the results to official police tests. Frighteningly, more than half of the devices showed that it was safe to drive when the police breathalyser registered more than the legal limit of 35mg of alcohol to 100ml of breath. Worse still, every single one of the machines failed to match the reading of West Yorkshire Police’s Home Office approved breathalysers – with most turning out to be little more than fakes, being passed off as ‘license saving’ devices.

The breathalysers tested varied wildly in their results, with the same unit giving a number of readings from the same person. And with a cheap breathalyser whenever it’s used it gets further contaminated by deposits from the breath, further increasing the chances of a false reading. The sensors can also be contaminated by silicone, found commonly in many car cleaning products and polishes and can easily get into the air. Should the sensor be contaminated by silicone, it will be destroyed – and from then on, it will only give an ‘all-clear’ result.

Brian Roake, managing director of Medacx explains: “Low cost devices use semi-conductor gas-sensing elements. This technology is low cost and none of these types of unit have ever been submitted for type approval. Quite simply the technology in these cheap breathalysers is not used in any of the approved devices in the world. They do not meet the exacting standards of police forces and therefore aren’t fit-for-purpose.”

The worry for police is that many well meaning friends and relatives will buy these breathalysers, which you can buy for between £2.49 and £15.99 as stocking fillers for loved ones, a gift which could end in disaster if relied on by someone thinking of driving after drinking. Inspector Russell Clark of West Yorkshire Police explains: “Anyone who’s stopped for drink driving will, as a very minimum, lose their licence for six months. If someone was to cause a death as a result of drink driving, they’re looking at a possible 14-year prison sentence. Handheld breathalysers are no defence if anyone should go to court. There is no safe level for drinking and driving, aside from not drinking at all.”

Those within the industry are calling for tighter regulations, to ensure that the dangers of these devices are eliminated. Hunter Abbott, managing director of Alcosense, the manufacturer of the UK’s most popular self test breathalyser whose products are more expensive than those tested by Parker’s and are triple-tested for accuracy comments: “We desperately need to see regulation of breathalysers in the UK. At the moment there’s a free-for-all and there’s no test for accuracy or consistency, which means anyone can sell a device in the UK as a breathalyser – it doesn’t actually have to be accurate. When you are potentially talking about the difference between life and death regulation is imperative.”

Inspector Clark added, “Many people may think that it’s a good idea to buy one of these for a loved one, but this could be the very article that harms them. It encourages people to drink to the max, when anyone who’s going out mustn’t be thinking about driving at all. A taxi is much cheaper than someone’s life and that life could be yours. We’re out there enforcing the law and it’s not worth the risk.”

Full details – and a video – of the investigation is available at: www.parkers.co.uk/drive