Comments on: LG Cell Phone with Breathalyzer gaining popularity http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/2027 Independent Tech News and Product Reviews from former VP and head of CNET.com and Longtime Computer Shopper Columnist, Alice Hill author of the popular "Hard Edge" column. Originally named AliceandBill.com. Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:19:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: Alice http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/2027#comment-4368 Sun, 30 Oct 2005 00:15:29 +0000 http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/2027#comment-4368 degustibus - we need you writing for this site. Send me some postings. alice@realtechnews.com degustibus - we need you writing for this site. Send me some postings. alice@realtechnews.com

]]> by: degustibus http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/2027#comment-4366 Sat, 29 Oct 2005 18:15:58 +0000 http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/2027#comment-4366 Years ago they tried putting breathalyzers in bars. The theory was it would enable people to see their blood alcohol level, and if impaired, take a cab or call a friend or wait until the BAC goes down. Problem was, the drinkers soon started using it as a competitive game:: How high can you get--or I can get higher than you.... Portable breathalyzers have been around for years -- Radioshack used to sell them -- the problem was that the market didn't catch on. Since alcohol affects the judgment, one can expect that people will either not use the device, or not use it as intended. I wouldn't disagree with this: "But anything that prevents accidents and deaths is probably worth looking at." I suspect that there is no data on alcohol-related accidents and deaths in Korea. Since the legal limit in Korea is .052 (see wikipedia, compare with US .08), one hardly needs a breathalyzer -- one or two drinks will get you to that level quite nicely. I did find this 1999 report: "For example between 1985 and 1995 the number of traffic deaths increased 1.4 times. In response to this increase, in 1992 the Korean government implemented an intensive five-year traffic accident reduction effort. As a result, the number of deaths has been decreasing since 1992, with the total number of deaths decreasing from 13,429 in 1991 to 10,323 in 1995. The number of alcohol-related traffic deaths has increased by an average of 12.7 percent annually. The ratio of alcohol-related to total deaths has also increased from 3.1 percent in 1990 to 6.7 percent in 1995. Analyzed in terms of age groups, 75.6 percent of the alcohol-related accidents involved drivers 21-40 years-old." http://www.icadts.org/reporter/v10n1.html Years ago they tried putting breathalyzers in bars. The theory was it would enable people to see their blood alcohol level, and if impaired, take a cab or call a friend or wait until the BAC goes down.

Problem was, the drinkers soon started using it as a competitive game:: How high can you get–or I can get higher than you…. Portable breathalyzers have been around for years — Radioshack used to sell them — the problem was that the market didn’t catch on. Since alcohol affects the judgment, one can expect that people will either not use the device, or not use it as intended.

I wouldn’t disagree with this: “But anything that prevents accidents and deaths is probably worth looking at.”

I suspect that there is no data on alcohol-related accidents and deaths in Korea. Since the legal limit in Korea is .052 (see wikipedia, compare with US .08), one hardly needs a breathalyzer — one or two drinks will get you to that level quite nicely.

I did find this 1999 report:
“For example between 1985 and 1995 the number of traffic deaths increased 1.4 times. In response to this increase, in 1992 the Korean government implemented an intensive five-year traffic accident reduction effort. As a result, the number of deaths has been decreasing since 1992, with the total number of deaths decreasing from 13,429 in 1991 to 10,323 in 1995. The number of alcohol-related traffic deaths has increased by an average of 12.7 percent annually. The ratio of alcohol-related to total deaths has also increased from 3.1 percent in 1990 to 6.7 percent in 1995. Analyzed in terms of age groups, 75.6 percent of the alcohol-related accidents involved drivers 21-40 years-old.”
http://www.icadts.org/reporter/v10n1.html

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