The Central government on Friday unveiled new draft rules for Evidential Breath Analysers under the Legal Metrology (General) Rules, 2011 to ensure their accuracy and reliability.

Unveiled by the Legal Metrology Division of the Department of Consumer Affairs, the initiative aims to ensure the accuracy and reliability of breath analysers used by law enforcement agencies and workplaces, thereby enhancing public safety and trust.

The verified and standardized Evidential Breath Analysers will accurately measure blood alcohol concentration from breath samples, ensuring that intoxicated individuals are identified swiftly and effectively. This helps prevent alcohol-related incidents on the road, contributing to safer travel for everyone.

The new rules require Evidential Breath Analysers to follow standardized testing procedures, ensuring consistent and reliable results across different devices. This standardisation fosters public confidence in the fairness and accuracy of enforcement actions, the ministry said in a statement.

Evidential Breath Analysers need to be verified and stamped according to the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, to ensure their accuracy. This verification protects individuals from wrongful penalties due to faulty equipment and helps maintain the integrity of legal and workplace policies.

The draft rules outline several technical requirements for Evidential Breath Analysers.

These include displaying only the final measurement result, including a printer to record results, and ensuring the device does not operate without paper.

It also aims at providing additional printed information along with the blood alcohol concentration result and reporting results in different formats, such as blood alcohol concentration in blood.

The draft rules define “Evidential Breath Analysers” as Instruments that measure and display the breath alcohol mass concentration of exhaled human breath within specified error limits and are applicable to those types of Evidential Breath Analysers that use mouthpieces for sampling the breath. The rules provide for various types of tests to ensure, the correctness of the instrument. The yearly verification will ensure the accuracy of this instrument during use.

Evidential Breath Analysers provide a non-invasive way to measure blood alcohol content, offering quick and painless sample collection. The rapid analysis capabilities allow law enforcement officers to make swift, informed decisions, enhancing the effectiveness of roadside checks.

The availability of stamped and verified Evidential Breath Analysers to the public can raise awareness about the effects of alcohol on impairment and the legal limits for the safe operation of vehicles and machinery. This encourages responsible behavior and informed decision-making.