Details:

Creators:
Flores, Arthur L.
Corporate Creators:
John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
Corporate Contributors:
United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Subject/TRT Terms:
[+]
Alcohol Blood Tests Alcohol Breath Tests Alcohol Chemical Tests Calibration Evaluation Gas Chromatography Infrared Analysis Law Enforcement Vapors
Resource Type:
Research Paper
Geographical Coverage:
United States
Corporate Publisher:
John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
NTL Classification:
AGR-SAFETY AND SECURITY-SAFETY AND SECURITY;NTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-SAFETY AND SECURITY;NTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Highway Safety;
Abstract:
Introduction. The NHTSA Model Specifications for Calibrating Units for Breath

Alcohol Testers (FR 72 34742-34748) requires that calibration units submitted for

inclusion on the NHTSA Conforming Products List for such devices be evaluated using

one of three alternate procedures, all of which were developed at the Volpe Center. The

first uses gas chromatography and wet gas reference samples for evaluation. This

procedure is no longer used because of the advent of dry gas CUs on the market. Gas

chromatography is an inappropriate technique for evaluation of dry gases using wet gas

reference samples. A second alternative uses gas chromatography with dry gas reference

samples. The dry gas references were obtained from the National Institute for Science

and Technology. A third procedure uses a non-dispersive infra-red spectrophotometry.

This third procedure is the preferred one, since reference samples are prepared at the

Volpe Center so that reliance on outside sources for reference samples is not necessary.

This preferred procedure uses a National Patent Analytical Systems, Inc. Datamaster

breath alcohol analyzer instrument to analyze samples. This device is a non-dispersive

infra-red spectrophotometer designed for breath (ethyl) alcohol analysis and is listed on

the NHTSA Conforming Products List for evidential breath testers. Analysis is based on

the absorption of a band of infra-red radiation centered at 3.4 microns, a wavelength area

that is strongly absorbed by alcohol and which at the same time is not interfered with by

other possible substances found in human breath, other than acetone.


Format:
PDF
Collection(s):
Volpe
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:eb1ea7307a71c4ee9c83f844dff31eb63022e5fc3a52e108de60d6644ff8d07b
Download URL:
https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/12227/dot_12227_DS1.pdf
File Type:

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