Tuesday, September 28, 2010

alcohol in the news: campustown bars install breathalyzers

From the Daily Illini

Campustown bars install breathalyzers

Along with enjoying beverages and socializing with friends, students and bar attendees can now find out their blood alcohol content level, or BAC, through breathalyzers that have cropped up in many Campustown bars.

Josh Flahaven, general manager of The Clybourne and Firehaus Restaurant and Bar, both located in Champaign on Sixth Street, said the company was approached by an outside vendor from the Chicago area with the idea of installing breathalyzers.

For $1, patrons can blow through a straw and the machine will read their BAC.

...

Flahaven said he believes the bar is providing a service and encourages the notion that “everyone needs to be responsible with (using the breathalyzer).” He said he sees the breathalyzers as “another way to communicate to customers” and as a tool for business owners to take responsibility for the health of their patrons. Sometimes, Flahaven added, a potential client may be too intoxicated to enter the establishment. In this case, the breathalyzer can serve as a visual representation for that person to understand his or her level of impairment.

It's a good idea. If people use it for it's purpose. Later in the story, it mentions the possibility of using it for a game, to see who is the drunkest.

That could be dangerous.


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