In time for the big July 4 weekend, an Iowa company that makes breathalyzers is trying to get the word out about its newest consumer-targeted product, a lightweight unit called the AlcoHawk Slim Ultra.
The company's PR firm sent one to the paper, so I took it for a test spin this weekend in the confines of my living room, safely away from any minors or moving vehicles.
The instructions are simple: Press the device's lone button to turn it on, wait for a beep, blow into a disposable mouthpiece, see the blood-alcohol content results displayed on a digital screen. For accurate results, the manual says to wait at least 20 minutes after eating, drinking or smoking before using the breathalyzer.
I drank 12-ounce pours of three beers -- Schlafly AIPA, Avery Maharaja Batch 12, Bear Republic Racer 5 -- over the course of two hours. I had eaten a normal-size dinner before this experiment.
(Side note: Three beers would be considered the alcohol equivalent of three glasses of wine or three shots of liquor. But that's based on beer that contains 5 percent alcohol by volume. The beers I sampled contain 8 percent, 10 percent and 7 percent ABV, respectively. I would put their equivalent closer to five glasses of wine or five mixed drinks.)
After one hour, with the Schlafly and Avery beers in my system, I registered a .08 percent, the cutoff for impairment as far as most U.S. state driving laws are concerned. If I was behind the wheel in Missouri or Illinois, I would have been driving under the influence and over the legal limit.
An hour later, after adding the Bear Republic beer, my BAC climbed slightly to .09 percent. I switched to water at this point. Another hour later, I blew .09 percent again.
The AlcoHawk manual describes the .07-.09 percent range as "Joy. Judgment and self-control are reduced. Caution, reason and memory are impaired. Driving skills are always impaired."
This exercise served as a good reminder that our bodies can reach that .08 threshold easier than we think. People should have enough common sense to know not to drive after they've been drinking. But even so, a device like the AlcoHawk can help eliminate some of the guesswork of how much is too much.
The Slim Ultra retails for about $50. About the size of a cell phone, it can fit in a purse or pocket. Bringing your own breathalyzer to a party might lead to some funny looks, so be prepared to pass it around to curious onlookers -- it comes with extra plastic mouthpieces for multiple users.
The bottom line: I'd rather be caught blowing into a personal breathalyzer at the end of a night than be doing it on the side of a road while a police officer tests me for DWI.
