7/27/2019 Common Mistakes and Misconceptions in Evidential Breath Testing
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8 datia focus fall 2013
COMMON MISTAKES
IN EVIDENTIALD
epartment o Transportation (DOT)
mandated Evidential Breath Tests
(EBTs) are conducted by thousands o
Breath Alcohol Technicians (BATs) each year.
The work o Breath Alcohol Technicians goes
largely unrecognized by the general public and in
the industries they serve. Yet without them, our
places o employment and ways o transportationwould be hazardous. It is not easy work; providing
rigorous training is only the beginning. Close
attention to detail, policies, procedures, rules and
regulations are their everyday work, not to mention
their responsibility, to saeguard the rights o their
customers, employers, and those they test.
This article addresses the more requent errors and
sources o conusion that occur in Evidential Breath
Testing. We hope it is instructive to current andprospective BATs and their trainers.
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BY AMY EVANS AND BARRY KNOTT, LIFELOC TECHNOLOGIES
www.datia.org datia focus
& MISCONCEPTIONS
BREATH TESTING1 Conusing a Calibration
with a Calibration Check
The steps required to perorm a calibration check
(also known as a “verication,” “cal check,” “external
calibration check,” or “accuracy check”) can be
similar to the steps o an Evidential Breath Tester
calibration. It is not uncommon or an inexperienced or
fustered BAT to inadvertently or unknowingly perorma calibration ater a positive test. This is the astest
way to discredit an otherwise properly conducted
positive conrmation test. Here’s why:
Calibrating an evidential breath tester sets the BAC
measurement o the instrument to a known alcohol
concentration rom a dry gas mixture o alcohol and
nitrogen, or rom a wet bath solution o alcohol and
water. Calibrating an EBT is comparable to setting
your watch to the time you know to be correct roman independent source.
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exceeds he DO requiremens. Bes prac-
ice is o ensure ha your BA raining is
conduced by he insrumen manuacureror a rainer who can race heir raining back o he manuacurer o he EB abou which
hey are raining. Te BA insrucor mus
also be qualied on he specic device(s)
ha he BA inends o use. BA documen-
aion o equipmen prociency is specic o
he manuacurer and model o he device(s) being used. Ensure ha your BA insrucor
is qualied and ha heir documenaion is
curren or he specic device(s) or which
raining is required.
3 Lapses in Breath Alcohol Technician
Reresher Training A BA mus receive reresher Breah
Alcohol echnician raining no less
han once every ve years. Tere are no
excepions o his rule. Te DO will likely consider invalid any evidenial breah ess
perormed by BAs who are overdue or
reresher raining.
Reresher raining covers he same
course conen as rs ime BA rain-
ing bu can normally be compleed morequickly as he suden is already amiliar
wih he maerial. Once again, i is he re-
sponsibiliy o he BA o ensure ha hey
mainain documenaion o suppor heir
compliance wih he ve-year reresher
raining requiremen. BA rainers and in-srumen manuacurers are no required
o keep copies o BA and insrumen
raining, however i is an indusry bes
pracice or hem o do so.
Furher reresher raining mus perain
o he insrumen model he BA will
be using. I your company acquires new breah esing equipmen o a dieren
model in he ive-year period (even i
he manuacurer is he same as he one
already in use), your BA proiciency
raining mus be underaken on he new model beore i can be used or DO
mandaed breah ess.
4Timing o aConfrmation Test
Conrmaion esing mus be perormed inhe window beween 15-30 minues aer a
posiive screening es. Tere are no excep-
ions, and a conrmaory es perormedsooner han he 15-minue waiing period
or aer he 30 minues will be cancelled.
I he conrmaion es is no compleed
wihin 30 minues, a new screening es and
Alcohol esing Form (AF) mus begin.
Mos commonly, errors are made by ailingo wai he ull 15 minues.
One way o help avoid he problem o
improperly imed conrmaion ess is o
use only ONE insrumen or ime mea-suremen. Your wach and he EB coun-
ing down he 15-minue wai period are nonecessarily in sync and i’s easy o see how
his can inadverenly lead o conducing
conrmaion ess oo early. For example,
he screening es ime on he EB migh
read 11:15 while he conrmaion es
ime reads 11:29 because a wach ha read11:30 promped he EB ha i was ime.
A esing device wih a coundown
imer or a coninuously displayed real
ime clock will help preven his error.
A bes praci ce is o check he ime o
he screening es on he insrumenand veriy ha a leas 15 minues have
passed on he EB clock beore aking
he conirmaion es.
5Failing to Change
the MouthpieceResidual condensaion, saliva or oher con-
aminans in a used mouhpiece can easily
aec he conrmaion es resuls. Using
he same mouhpiece or boh he screen-
ing es and he conrmaion es will causehe conrmaion es o be cancelled. Werecommend EB users ge ino he habi o
removing and discarding a spen mouh-
piece immediaely aer every es. I his
error occurs, he conrmaory es mus be
cancelled and noed on he AF, and a new
conrmaory es underaken.
In he case o EB calibraion, he indepen-
den source is he dry gas cylinder o a known
alcohol concenraion. In he above compari-son, he alcohol concenraion o he dry gas
cylinder and ofcial Unied Saes ime are
boh raceable back o he sandards o he Na-
ional Insiue o Sandards and echnology.
Undersanding ha calibraion is aprocess o reseting he esing insrumen,
makes i easy o see why perorming a
calibraion immediaely ollowing a posi-
ive conrmaion es makes i impossible
o veriy ha he insrumen was reading
correcly when he es was aken. A calibraion check veries ha he EB
is reading correcly bu does no rese i.“Cal checking” an EB is similar o veriy-
ing ha your wach’s ime is accurae by
comparing is ime o an accurae source.
In keeping wih our earlier analogy, a wachmay dri ou o ime jus as an EB may
dri ou o calibraion due o acors no
immediaely apparen o he user.
I is a bes pracice o perorm a calibra-
ion check aer a posiive conrmaion
es, o demonsrae ha he EB is readingaccuraely. I he calibraion check passes,
his conrms he insrumen is measuring
accuraely and he posiive es is accep-
able, according o DO regulaions.
Te nex ime you hear a BA indiscrim-
inaely use he word “calibraion” o reero “calibraion vericaions” (cal checks), i
may be ime or some reresher raining.
2 Not Adhering toBreath Alcohol
Technician TrainingRequirements According o 49 CFR Par 40, specic rain-
ing requiremens mus be me o become aBreah Alcohol echnician. Te DO has
specied a Model BA Course, which mus
be ollowed o help ensure sudens receivehe necessary raining. I may seem couner
inuiive ha he DO places he burden
on he rainee and no he rainer, o ensure
ha he BA raining hey receive mees or
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6Potential Errors on
the ATF
Te AF records es resuls rom an alcoholesing device. I is imporan ha he our
seps required by he AF are compleed
correcly. Failure o do so or o recognize andcorrec errors aer a es may invalidae i.
Sep 1 o AF compleion is sraighor-
ward: Complee he subjec’s inormaion,
he DER’s conac ino and he reason or he
es. Tis can be compleed beore he es.
Te mos common errors in AFcompleion arise in seps wo, hree and
our o he AF:
AF Sep 2: Neglecting to have the test
subject sign and date this section on the
ATFbefore conducting the screening
test. In Sep2, he subjec signs he orm oconrm hey a) received he es insruc-
ions prined on he back o he AF, b)
had he opporuniy o read he insruc-
ions i hey so chose, and c) consened ohe screening es. Logically, his mus bedone before submiting o he es.
AF Sep 3: Prematurely checking the
15-minute wait box and/or checking this
box when only a screening test has been
performed. Do no check his box unless i
is ime o do so. AF Sep 4: Having the subject sign
the ATF in Step 4 when they don’t need
to. When he subjec signs he AF, hey
are agreeing no o drive or perorm any
saey sensiive duies. Subjec signaure
is only required aer he subjec has had aposiive conrmaion es. I is boh unnec-
essary and incorrec or he subjec o sign
he AF aer a negaive conrmaion es.
Correctly completing the Alcohol Test
Form is critical to proper Evidential
Breath Testing
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o errors, or he errors are discovered by he
BA him/hersel. During his 30-day period,
he BA can coninue DO breah esing.
Once he 30-day ime-period has passed,
however, he BA will be deemed o be ou o compliance and can no longer ac as a Breah
Alcohol echnician unil he error correcion
raining has been successully compleed.
Error correcion raining is only required o
cover he subjec mater area(s) in which he
error(s) ha caused he es o be cancelledoccurred. Error raining is no required i an
alcohol es is cancelled due o equipmen
maluncion, unless he ailure was due o
ailure o he BA o properly mainain
he equipmen. However, error raining is
required i he BA does no atemp oaccomplish he es ollowing he equipmen
ailure using anoher EB—provided ha an
addiional uni was reasonably available.
8Residual Mouth
AlcoholSome common producs use alcohol as
an ingredien and his alcohol will regiser
on an EB or a shor period o ime aer
being consumed. Tis eec is known as
“residual mouh alcohol.” Examples include
mouhwash, cough syrup, liquid cold medi-
cine, breah sprays, some chewing obaccoand inhalers. Cerain oods we consume
have very low levels o alcohol. Alhough
no required under DO guidelines, i
is a good pracice or he BA o ask he
subjec o remove any produc rom heirmouh prior o a breah es o reduce he
risk o residual mouh alcohol.
Unknown o he BA, a posiive screen-
ing es may occur because he subjec used
an alcohol-inused produc such as a breah
spray, cough syrup and even some ypeso chewing obacco, immediaely prior o
an alcohol screening es. Tis could have been done innocenly or as an atemp o
mask he smell o drinking. Fieen minues
laer he conrmaion es may show no
alcohol or a much lower BAC han oundin he screening es. In his siuaion he
BA should immediaely be on he aler ha
“residual mouh alcohol” may be presen.
In siuaions like his, where he conr-
maory es regisers none or much lower
BAC han expeced, he BA should rerain
rom remarks suggesing ha perhaps a
“alse” posiive was received or oherwisequesion he EB resuls in ron o he
subjec, as his will only serve o cas doub
abou he validiy o he es resuls.
I he subjec has used he above-men-
ioned producs correcly and is no using
hem o mask he smell o alcohol romdrinking, hey will dissipae during he
15-minue wai ime beween he screen-
ing and conrmaion es. I he subjec
has ruly consumed alcohol, hey will have
a posiive conrmaion es resul demon-
sraing heir accurae BAC.
ConclusionI is almos impossible o ideniy every
possible error or unique siuaion ha may
arise in DO Evidenial Breah esing. Te
errors highlighed in his aricle are relaively common. Prospecive BAs will bene
rom reviewing hese errors and he esing
experiences o seasoned BAs and BA
rainers. We hope ha you will reely share
his DAIA aricle. ❚
Amy Evans is the Workplace and Training Busi-ness Manager at Lifeloc Technologies (www.
lifeloc.com), a leading manufacturer of Evidential
Breath Alcohol Testers and provider of Breath
Alcohol Technician training. Amy has been in the
drug and alcohol testing industry since 2004. She
has created breath alcohol training materials and
courses for DOT mandated and non-mandated
testing in use by private business and govern-
ment agencies in North America and internation-
ally. She regularly conducts training in person and
via webcast. Amy has been a member of DATIA
for more than nine years and has provided expert
testimony for the U.S. Coast Guard.
Barry Knott is president and CEO of Lifeloc
Technologies (www.lifeloc.com), a trusted U.S.
manufacturer of DOT approved Evidential Breath
Alcohol Testing instruments for mandated and
non-mandated workplace alcohol testing. He
also serves on the Board of Directors of DATIA.
The DOT puts the onus on the trainee
to ensure their BAT training meets or
exceeds DOT requirements.
Tese common errors are considered
“correcable” by he DO—even i hey gounnoiced by he BA unil aer he AF
copies have been disribued. “Correcable”means he errors can be remedied by send-
ing he Designaed Employee Represena-
ive (DER) a signed afdavi or memo-
randum addressing he misake. However,
because he BA who made he errors may
be unlikely o noice hem, i is bes o gei righ he rs ime. I he exra ime and
eor o correc hese errors isn’ sufcien
moivaion, remember ha errors like hese
are quickly noiced in an audi and likely o
resul in quesioning by he audiors.I is very imporan ha he DER has a
copy ha mirrors he subjec’s copy. Even
i you realize an error has occurred beore
sending or ransmiting he DER’s copy,
you mus creae a memorandum/afdavi
or he DER raher han merely adding a
remark o heir copy.
7Error CorrectionTraining
I a BA makes an error in he alcohol esing
process, causing a es o be cancelled (i.e.a aal or uncorreced error), he BA musundergo error correcion raining. Te mos
common misakes leading o correcion rain-
ing are hose menioned above: no waiing
he 15 minues and using he same mouh-
piece on he screening and conrmaion es.
Error correcion raining mus occur wihin30 days rom he dae he BA is noied