History, present status and future prospects of breath-alcohol analysis.

The first generation of breath-alcohol devices appeared in the 1940s and the classic Breathalyser was introduced in the early 1950s. The widespread use of the Breathalyser helped to establish breath analysis in traffic-law enforcement. Many sophisticated breath testing devices have been developed over the past decade and in the future much more extensive use of breath-alcohol instruments in clinical and experimental alcohol research and a more specific determination of ethanol in the breath sample will be desirable in some situations.