10-144 C.M.R. ch. 269, § 2 - EQUIPMENT
A. Only those instruments approved by the
U.S. Department of Transportation for the purpose of breath testing will be
considered. Evidence of this approval must be submitted by the manufacturer. An
approved wet bath simulator or dry gas standard must be provided for use with
each instrument.
B. The accuracy
and sensitivity of the equipment must produce results within ± 0.01
g/210L or 5%, whichever is greater of the known value in the analysis of
appropriate reference materials of known ethyl alcohol
concentrations.
C. Before approval,
each instrument must be tested by a chemist of the Health and Environmental
Testing Laboratory (HETL). Approval will be given provided the instrument
produces results accurate within the limits of the performance requirements of
the Department as specified in Section 2(B) above and will be indicated by
affixing to the instrument a label with the test date placed thereon, which
will be valid for no more than seven months.
D. Each instrument will be retested by a
chemist of the HETL at least once semi-annually. A new label of approval will
be affixed to the instrument with the test date placed thereon.
E. Failure of an instrument to provide
results accurate within the limits of the performance requirements of the
Department, (see Section 2(B) above), when detected, will be investigated by a
trained operator or a chemist of the HETL to determine the cause of that
failure. If the results of that investigation establish that the instrument
itself is out of calibration, or non-functional, that will be cause for
immediate withdrawal of approval.
Notes
State regulations are updated quarterly; we currently have two versions available. Below is a comparison between our most recent version and the prior quarterly release. More comparison features will be added as we have more versions to compare.
1. A calibration check must be run for each subject tested.
2. For each person tested, a complete breath-alcohol test must consist of 2 separate breath samples which result in determinations of breath-alcohol concentration which agree within ± 0.02g/210L.
3. If the first 2 breath sample results on the subject do not agree within ± 0.02g/210L, subsequent samples must be taken until 2 tests fall within the prescribed limits. If after 4 separate breath sample results are taken, no 2 breath sample results agree within the prescribed limits, the testing sequence shall be void and either a retest or an alternative procedure shall be required.
4. The two lowest results which agree within ± 0.02 g/210L will be averaged, reporting only the first two decimal places of the average result as the final breath alcohol concentration.
5. The Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory will provide any alcohol wet bath solution or dry gas standard required by each agency for calibration check.