You are currently browsing the archives for the Alcohol category.
26/10/2008 by admin.
The government backed initiative is aimed at steering youngsters away from drug and alcohol misuse.
It will mean primary school children will learn from the age of five about topics such as the effects of drugs on the body.
As pupils progress through school they will be given detailed information about the risks of drug and alcohol misuse
The announcement follows reviews into sex and drugs education in school.
Announcing the findings Schools Minister Jim Knight said: “Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) should be made statutory. It should be supported by a statutory programme of study in order to give it an increased status in schools and with school leaders.”
Click here to read the full article
Posted in Education, Alcohol, drugs | 1 Comment »
21/10/2008 by admin.
Many people consider purchasing a personal breathalyser at this time of year for self testing the morning after the night before.
The choice for consumers in the sub £60 market is quite large and the options and features offered by breathalysers can be confusing.
For personal testing we recommend breathalysers which have the follwing features.
1) Choose a unit with mouth tubes you put your lips round. Saving on mouth pieces may seem a good money saving idea, but blowing at a hole reduces the accuracy of the tests considerably
2) Choose a unit which samples for at least 5 seconds
3) Look for simple flow checking or error checking technology, so that only good samples are reported by the unit
4) Manufacturers accuracy should be at least +/- 0.01% BAC Anything less avoid.
5) Check the unit can be re-calibrated or that the sensor module is exchangeable.
The last feature is critcal if you expect the unit to last more than 6 months as it will require calibration service or sensor exchange to keep it accurate. Calibration setting is a consumable, like petrol in a car, the warrantee doesn’t cover the car stoping working because of an empty tank. Expect each sensor setting to last for 300 to 700 tests, but this is very variable.
Our personal recommendation for a good accurate personal breathalyser which wont disappoint the DA5000 breathalyser from ValueBreathalysers
Posted in DA5000 Breathalyser, Value breathalysers, Breathalysers, Alcohol | No Comments »
21/10/2008 by admin.
The cheapest breathalysers are the single use breathalysers.
They give reliable results within 2 minutes and are easily carried in a pocket, glove box or purse
They come in three sensitivities:
They cost £4.99 for a pack of 3, to £29.99 for a pack of 20.
Each breathalyser is for single use only, but for occaisonal use they can work out very cost effective
Click here for more information or to buy single use breathalysers online
Alternatively if you are looking for a great value for money Digital breathalyser that you can use multiple times, then consider the 2009 model DA5000 breathalyser.
At just £48 delivered in the UK , it offers excellent value for money and reliable results time after time.
Click here for more information on the 2009 model DA5000 Breathalyser
Posted in Single Use Breathalyser, DA5000 Breathalyser, Breathalysers, Alcohol | 1 Comment »
20/10/2008 by admin.
UK Driving Limits For Vehicles operated on a normal Driving licenseBlood test - 80 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres, 80mg/ml, 0.08 BAC, 0.8 Promille Breath Test - 35 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath BrACFor Professional drivers and operatives.
Under the new Railways Transportation Safety Bill the Government have now introduced new limits for those working in the Transport Industry. The new limit is just 0.02% - one quarter the UK Drink-Drive limit of 0.08% and the lowest detectable level possible allowing for the residual levels that can exist in anyone whether they’ve been drinking or not. The new rules apply to Pilots, Cabin Crew, Air Traffic Controllers, Aircraft Engineers, Train Drivers, and Commercial Seamen
Blood test - 20 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres, 20mg/ml, 0.02 BAC, 0.2 Promille
Breath test - 9 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath (BrAC)
Posted in Breathalyser Limit, Breathalysers, Alcohol | 1 Comment »
20/10/2008 by admin.
Just read this article on the Addaction Website. Addaction is the UK’s largest drug and alcohol treatment charity
Here is an extract from the article
5th October 2008 One in five (19 per cent) young people say they think their parents have taken drugs and of those, one in ten (nine per cent) say they think their parents still take drugs, according to a survey published today by Addaction, Britain’s biggest specialist drug and alcohol charity. Yet overwhelmingly young people describe themselves as being ‘against’ drugs (90 per cent) and only one in ten (13 per cent) think celebrities make taking drugs seem ‘cool’ (1).
The Addaction YouGov and Dubit surveys, which questioned almost 2000 adults and 500 young people selected at random in England and Scotland about their attitudes towards drugs and alcohol, reveals signs that the generation gap is closing between parents and their children on drugs.
Click here to visit the Addaction Website
Posted in Addaction, Alcohol, drugs | 1 Comment »
17/10/2008 by admin.
Just read this interesting article online by Kate Devlin Medical Correspondent for The Telegraph. The article was published 10/10/08.
Here is an extract from the article:
The number of patients admitted to mental health wards because of drug or alcohol abuse has risen by almost one third in three years, latest figures show.
More than 47,000 patients were admitted in 2006, 10,000 more than in 2003, due to the effects of drink or drugs.
The rise come despite a drop in the overall number of patients in psychiatric units, from a high of 214,000 in 1998 to just over 180,000 in 2006.
Opposition parties said that the increases were “worrying” and accused the Government of failing to get to grips with a growing drugs problem.
Official figures released earlier this year show that one in three British adults admits to having tried illegal drugs.
More than three million adults were estimated to have taken at least one banned substance last year, according to the figures from the NHS Information Centre.
Doctors have warned that high strength types of cannabis are increasing mental health problems.
Earlier this year a study showed that people who use skunk cannabis, which can be up to 10 times stronger than other types of the drug, were 18 times more likely to develop psychosis than those who smoke milder forms.
Click here to read the full article
Posted in Drugs & Mental Illness, Cannabis, Alcohol, drugs | No Comments »
16/10/2008 by admin.
In the UK we spell Breathalyser with an “s”
In North America Breathalyzer is commonly spelt with a “z”
Niether should be confused with the miss spelt Breathaliser and Breathalizer which is a hybrid beast found some where mid atlantic .
All are of course one and the same,
Posted in Breathalysers, Alcohol | No Comments »
16/10/2008 by admin.
Digital Alcohol Breathalysers are now widely available to buy. If the breathalyser is to be used for personal alcohol breath testing or for employment breathalyser or clinic breathalyser testing, there are a few key features, which vary from breathalyser to breathalyser, to look out for.
Firstly, ensure that you buy from a reputable distributor or supplier, with a long trading history and experience in the breathalyser market. Ensure the breathalyser company is registered in the UK and VAT registered. Ensure their contact details are to a full and complete UK address and not a PO box or registered mail drop. The company should be offering a full 12 month UK based guarantee for all breathalysers sold.
Breathalyser Calibration : What is it ? Many buyers get confused by the term calibration. Put simply calibration is the technical service, performed by manufacturers and dealers, to set up the accuracy of the breathalyser and ensure it give a standardised reading at set concentrations of alcohol. At each calibration service the breathalyser is reset to give accurate readings. For cheap breathalysers, the cost of re-calibration service is greater than the purchase price and for this reason you will not see calibration or sensor modules being offered, These breathalysers are effectively consumables, to be replaced when there calibration has been exhausted. The risk is these cheap units don’t tell you when this occurs and can go on giving inaccurate measurements. Calibration service has to be performed at the site of the dealer, so breathalysers requiring calibration service have to be returned to the dealer periodically. Most breathalyser units will give 300-700 tests between each calibration service, but all digital breathalysers should have their calibration checked at 6-12 monthly intervals to ensure accurate breathalyser results.
Modern breathalysers have sensor modules which are removeable and the user simply exchanges the old module and sensor with a pre-calibrated replacement. This takes about 2-5 minutes to complete and the most modern breathalyser designs incorporate technology which tells the user when to change the sensor. This design is for more convenient for the user, and replacement sensors are cheaper than calibration service (a large element of the cost is labour)
For more advice on choosing breathalysers read this
Posted in Value breathalysers, Breathalysers, Alcohol | 1 Comment »
15/10/2008 by admin.
The new & improved 2009 DA5000 model breathalysers are here in UK and are expected to be very popular.
The DA5000 is a great value for money breathalyser offering high accuracy at an affordable price.
The new 2009 DA5000 breathalyser model uses upgraded Firewire software for even greater accuracy than previous DA5000 models
Click here for more information or to buy the 2009 model DA5000
Click here to see 2008 DA5000 breathalyser
Posted in DA5000 Breathalyser, Value breathalysers, Breathalysers, Alcohol | No Comments »
13/10/2008 by admin.
Numerous factors influence how long it takes for alcohol to work it’s way out of the body. Your age, weight, metabolism (liver & kidney function), prescription and other drugs, what you’ve been eating and when you last ate as well as how fast you were drinking and when you last drank. Even the type of alcohol makes a difference.
Most of us cant afford to guess what our blood alcohol levels are, the consequences are simply too great.
19% of all UK drink drive convictions happen the morning after. Invariably these drivers were expecting that the alcohol they consumed had been cleared from their blood.
Many factors have contributed to a rise in these prosecutions, including larger restaurant and pud wine measures (now up to 350ml) A trend to stronger premium beers and largers. Extended licensing hours and 24 hr supermarket “off licenses” offering low cost alcohol.
You will not find reliable tables of indicators of how high your blood alcohol will be after a set volume of alcohol, or how fast the alcohol will be cleared. They do not exist due to the multiple variables listed above.
Estimating the affect of alcohol is dangerous. Blood alcohol levels and the resultant brain function/impairment are variable and unpredictable. The combination of other depressive drugs such as benzo, barbs, opiates and even Cannabis can significantly impair congnitative skills, so alcohol should never be considered in isolation.
By its very nature, alcohol impairs the brains ability to make a reliable judgement of ability or intoxification. This impairment is clearly still in place while the blood alcohol remains elevated and can last for many hours after drinking has stopped.
Avoid drinking into the small hours.
Do not drink for at least 10 hrs before testing for zero BAC
Employ reliable simple zero tolerance testing before considering driving such as 0.02%BAC breath alcohol detectors.
Do not drive if any hangover affects persist, even if BAC is negative, performance will still be impaired
BAC = Blood Alcohol Concentration
Posted in Alcohol | 1 Comment »