Challenging the Breath Test (Part IV)
External alcohol or other substances such as solvents, cleaning fluids, police car exhaust fumes, or other agents may interfere with the test results. There are thousands of sources of alcohol that may potentially contaminate the air in the room. Modern machines try to eliminate this defense by testing the room air in what is referred to as the "ambient air" or "air-blank" tests. The machine must read a 0.000 to show that the air is clean prior to the test and that the sample chamber is purged of alcohol vapors. If the amount of ambient alcohol exceeds a "significantly detectable level"...
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