RMT backs drink driving

[Andrew]

Sorry never seen it until posted, ho ho ho

[barry luxton]

Sorry never seen it until posted, ho ho ho

 

tsk, you have edited your post that makes mine look irrelevant now, change it back.

[Andrew]

Nah, it was flawed,

[ayjay]

now what about these so called flawed tests, anyone got a link to them?

If you have diabetes, as it's been reported that this driver does, the tests could be flawed.

It is crucial to understand that the breathalyser does not measure the alcohol content of blood. Only a blood test can measure blood content.The breathalyser actually measures electrical current. When a person has been drinking, this electrical current is produced when an ethanol (ethyl alcohol) is oxidized to acetic acid (vinegar) at the test site. The current is processed by the machine and then converted into an approximation of blood alcohol content.

 

 

When a person breathes into the chamber, the device sends out an infra-red beam of light through the breath sample. The machine then measures the wavelength of the beam of light. Chemicals oxidizing from the alcohol group absorb more light and will send a higher reading back to the machine.

 

Acetone is a chemical compound naturally produced in the human body. It is also oxidized in the same way the body processes ethanol. The average person does not produce high enough levels of acetone to create a measurable reaction. However…People with diabetes may have acetone levels hundreds or thousands of times higher than the average person. The infrared beam cannot distinguish between ethanol and acetone, so a person with diabetes could very easily get a false-positive breathalyser test.

There are several other groups of people who can also produce completely false readings, those on a high fat/low carb diet, anyone using an Asthma inhaler, even someone with a particularly small lung capacity.

 

There are other breathalyser machines which don't have these problems but I don't know what was used in this case, I was just using the info from your original link Barry which made it quite clear when it reported:-

 

"One of London Underground's own doctors conceded that type 2 diabetes, liver disease and even fasting can give false positives on hand-held machines."

 

You have to wonder why this driver wasn't offered a blood test - we often never know the real story behind news items - did the driver and the tester (or someone in management) have a previous history? Was the driver tupping the testers wife/girlfriend/mother/sister? There's 1001 things that could be behind it.

Edited February 15, 2015 by ayjay

[barry luxton]

points been made re diabetes, posts 17 and 23.

 

if it's type 2 he shouldn't have been attempting to drive as his self testing kit would have confirmed in any event. Someone else has intimated, he would have difficulty in keeping hold of a driving licence for a car let alone a train full of passengers.

 

The above is irrelevant as the main question is why didn't the driver or rmt go for wrongful dismissal first as opposed to disrupting hundreds of thousands of commuters, that is what I find totally reprehensible.

[Andrew]

[big_cod]

tsk, you have edited your post that makes mine look irrelevant now, change it back.

 

Barry its a very small world just had it pointed to me what you wrote on fishing news forum what a prick you really are who knows hook all and who pretends to know everything about everything slagging me off so you think scallop dregeing is ok do you i know one lad who has just lost £20,000 worth of potts to scallopers .

I have seen first hand just what destruction scallop dregeing does ripping the bottom peices turning into a desert you call yourself an angler obviously who doesnt give dam about the marine enviroment you know nothing these boats have been severy restricted all around the uk as yourself why is that because do they plant a bed of rose no because they rip the sea bed to bits i have seen peices of ground which prior to these boats smashing it to bits which were once extremly fertile with cod lobsters ,crabs etc i visited ground they had worked last summer for the first time and got the shock of my life no fish to be seen the ground ripped to shreads so dont blurt things you know nothing about and its on the yorskshire coast but have good look at this video which was shot on the dorset coast scallop dredging is banned or severly restricted all the world .

 

 

paul.

Edited February 16, 2015 by big_cod

[Steve Walker]

Most of the references I can see to the risk of hypoglycaemia causing false positives on breathalysers seem to be US lawyers touting for business getting people off DUI charges. I am sure they are very selective about only getting off the innocent

 

TFL will not allow diabetics who have uncontrolled hypos to drive taxis. To be honest, turning up to drive a train with hypoglycaemia is not much less irresponsible than turning up half cut.

 

London Underground say that they used a Lion intoximeter which is specifically sensitive to alcohol.

 

Someone who has been tested by LU says that they used a Lion Alcolmeter 400

 

http://www.lionlaboratories.com/product-details/?product_id=5

 

Lion say this;

 

http://www.lionlaboratories.com/faq/lion-breath-analysis-instruments/

 

How specific are the Lion breath instruments to ALCOHOL in breath?

 

All lion alcolmeter®instruments use a fuel cell sensor for the actual analysis process: this has a very high specificity to alcohol in breath. In fact, there will generally be nothing else in the breath of a living human which could cause an apparent ‘alcohol’ reading on this equipment. Fuel cell based instruments are certainly unaffected by hydrocarbons such as petrol; and by ketones, as may be present in the breath of a person such as a diabetic, or someone on a low-carbohydrate diet. These sensors will though respond to other alcohols apart from ethanol – such as methanol or propanol – although it is highly unlikely that anyone would have any of these present in their breath to any degree, if at all. And even if they did, they would still be impaired anyway!

 

The infrared based lion intoxilyzer® range of instruments are different. These are designed to meet current national and international specifications [such as OIML R126], which effectively require them to be specific to ethanol. This is achieved by multi-filtering infrared optical techniques, in conjunction with the controlling analytical software.

[barry luxton]

make your mind up cod, one minute your telling all how good your fishing is, then you go around and tell all the scallopers have cocked it all up at the very same time, last year it was netters wasn't it?

 

At the moment the whitby association is advertising come on up and have a fish, yet last month you claim that the coast up there has been flattened by the scallopers and there's no fish left. Want me to go and get the links for you?

Edited February 16, 2015 by barry luxton

[big_cod]

make your mind up cod, one minute your telling all how good your fishing is, then you go around and tell all the scallopers have cocked it all up at the very same time, last year it was netters wasn't it?

 

At the moment the whitby association is advertising come on up and have a fish, yet last month you claim that the coast up there has been flattened by the scallopers and there's no fish left. Want me to go and get the links for you?

Barry your an idiot again you think You know what your talking when you haven't a clue the scallopers have destroyed large areas of ground but not all, the areas they have been working is flattened so don't burble on about something you nothing about I appreciate what we have here I aren't out to destroy it like some for short term gain like I said don't burble on about something you nothing about .

Edited February 16, 2015 by big_cod