Intoxilyzer 5000 in need of maintenance. 100 alcohol standard at 34 C. Exposure to mixture of room temperature 50 alcohol standard and GOJO containing limonene bubbled into breath tube during air blanks plus GOJO on hands near flask air entry. After initial AMBIENT FAIL ACACA cal. checks now reading as low as 62 mg/100mls or even lower if INTERFERENT flag at 24 mgs/100mls. 0 has been raised by ethanol and limonene during air blanks far above 20 mg/100 mls threshold. In the process GOJO/limonene has either contaminated sample chamber, tubing, simulator or 100 alcohol standard or instrument's interferent add/subtract circuitry has been affected ultimately result in in 145 cal. check and 144 cal. check when room air used as ambient. Quaere: does contamination of an instrument and accesory equipment by an ambient interferent necessitate a change to the alcohol standard? Is it therefore necessary that the police log and the Crown disclose every "INTERFERENT" error (cards and COBRA/ADAMS) since the last solution change and prior to the subject test so that the defence will have full notice that the alcohol standard may have been unreliable? Intoxilyzer® is a registered trademark of CMI, Inc. The Intoxilyzer® 5000C is an "approved instrument" in Canada.

Intoxilyzer 5000 in need of maintenance. Experiments with GOJO hand cleaner containing limonene partially dissolved in cold 50 mg/100mls alcohol standard bubbled into breath tube during some air blanks. Effects on cal. checks with 200 alcohol standard. Sometimes but not always "Interferent" flag. Cal. checks far below and far above acceptable. Simulator/tubing/Intoxilyzer reliability compromised because cal. checks no longer reliable. Intoxilyzer® is a registered trademark of CMI, Inc. The Intoxilyzer® 5000C is an "approved instrument" in Canada.

Intoxilyzer 5000 in need of maintenance. 100 alcohol standard at 34C. Note high cal. checks on ACACA and ACABA sequences. Calibration check system (sample chamber, interferent detect/subtract/add circuitry, tubing, simulator, or standard) has been compromised by previous experiments bubbIing mixture of cold 50 mg/100mls standard and GOJO containing limonene. Quaere: Once there has been any indication of an "Interferent" should the alcohol standard be changed? Should any "Interferent" flag since last alcohol standard change be disclosed to the defence since the alcohol standard may not be reliable? Intoxilyzer® is a registered trademark of CMI, Inc. The Intoxilyzer® 5000C is an "approved instrument" in Canada.

Intoxilyzer 5000 in need of maintenance. 100 alcohol standard at 34 C. Prior exposure to mixture of room temperature 50 alcohol standard and GOJO containing limonene bubbled into breath tube during air blanks plus GOJO on hands near flask air entry. ACACA cal. checks now reading as high as 134 mg/100mls. GOJO/limonene has either contaminated sample chamber, tubing, simulator or 100 alcohol standard or instrument's interferent add/subtract circuitry has been affected. Quaere: does contamination of an instrument and accesory equipment by an ambient interferent necessitate a change to the alcohol standard? Is it therefore necessary that the police log and the Crown disclose every "INTERFERENT" error (cards and COBRA/ADAMS) since the last solution change and prior to the subject test so that the defence will have full notice that the alcohol standard may have been unreliable?

Experiment to explore the effects of a hand cleaner such as GOJO containing limonene in the ambient air respecting reliability of the alcohol standard. 100 SAS in simulator at 34.0C. Operator runs ACACA mode. Cal. check drops from 103 to 81, 96, 85 when hand cleaner in air near breath tube on prior air blank and then returns to 111, 105. Note that 111 is outside of acceptable range. It appears that ambient hand cleaner in the breath room can reduce an apparent cal. check by 20 mg/100mls. Although the breath test result itself may be reduced, the reliability of the simulator/alcohol standard has been compromised and so the breath test itself is not reliable. If the instrument is, for example, reading 11 mgs/100 mls too high and the problem is not with the simulator (note the 111 cal. check), then this inaccuracy may be masked. Cal. checks could be in the normal 90 to 110 mgs/100mls range only because the cal. check reliability was compromised by the ambient limonene and the instrument's response thereto.

Main simulator has 100 SAS at 34.0C. This video is a sequel to two longer videos. Experiment using cold extra simulators at 40 mgs/100mls and 100 mgs/100mls gradually warmed to simulate slow changes in ambient ethanol in room air. Instrument does not trigger "Ambient Fail" because the change is gradual. The results of this experiment show why it is very important for the operator to control breath room ambient conditions and pay close attention to any indications of bizarre ambient conditions. Those indications may include strange cal. checks, ambient fail messages, and others in the weeks before and after the subject tests. In order to make full answer and defence respecting the issue of instrument reliability the defence needs full disclosure of conditions that affect the SAS reliability including expiry, stability, temperature, AND AMBIENT CONDITIONS IN THE BREATH ROOM. Please note that the need for such full disclosure is even more important if ambient conditions potentially include ethanol PLUS INTERFERENTS such as limonene.

Defence lawyer, Stephen Biss, explains the impact of interferents such as hand cleaners on the Intoxilyzer 5000C approved instrument in Canada.

This is an example of a false Error Message. The instrument indicates "Interferent" i.e. a chemical interferent when the cause is radio frequency interference (RFI). Error messages are not always reliable to identify the correct error.

ACACA calibration checks using 100 solution, first cal. check 102, second cal. check indicates "Interferent" then 106 when exposed to cell phone RFI