Why can't I use a Personal Breathalyzer for testing someone else?

But when used to test someone else the results can be far more serious. Take the scenario where a driver is checked by his manager in the morning before work, and according to the £150 personal tester the company have bought the driver is shown to be over the limit. At the very least the driver would be sent home, almost certainly now subject to disciplinary action - yet the detector could easily be over-reading (as it is designed to!) or could be mistaking mint vapour, mouthwash or other contaminants in the sample for Alcohol.

The cost to the business? Potentially very high. At a minimum they are a driver down for the day and management time is taken to follow-up the incident. But the employee is likely to suffer considerable stress at having been falsely accused of drinking - and claims of psychological trauma can easily run to several thousand pounds if the employer can be shown to have used a device that was not fit for purpose.

How does that relate to a Drugs & Alcohol Policy? Firstly the Directors have to satisfy themselves that their employees are fit for work - which includes being sober. If an accident were to occur caused by an employee who was under the influence of Alcohol, the company would have to demonstrate that it had taken all reasonable steps to prevent such an occurrence. In most cases this includes random Breath Testing - but the device used for such a test must also be capable of being shown to be accurate and consistent.

What is the likely view of the court towards a company, who when asked for details of the equipment used for policing their Drugs and Alcohol Policy, has to admit to using a non-approved, Personal Breathalyzer that cost £100 or so?

To pass certification the sensors have to be able to consistently demonstrate their ability to isolate Alcohol, and Alcohol alone from any other contaminants in the breath. They are deliberately designed assuming that the subject being tested will do everything to achieve a false reading - from temperature and moisture checks to exact air volume sampling. Personal Detectors may have some similar features but they are not required - or built - to meet such rigorous standards for one simple reason - they are designed to be used by the owner, and the assumption is made that the owner is doing their best to get an accurate result, not a false one!

Summary
In short, Approved Breathalyzers do cost more to buy, but in the long term will be more reliable, last far longer and most importantly give both the user and the employee the confidence to know that the result is accurate. 

There are companies on the Internet who advertise cheap personal devices costing from as little as £50 as being "ideally suited for company screening".  In seven years we have never over-sold our products or misled our customers; it is one reason why we have over 10,000 satisfied customers from the past few years alone and why almost 20% of our business last year was either personal recommendations or repeat business; we are honest about what you can expect to achieve from the device you buy.

Buying a non-approved device may seem a useful saving initially, but the cost of a single false positive result, or worse still an incident not picked up by a faulty or inconsistent device will be far greater.  Contact us for further assistance choosing the right device for you needs.