Breath-analysis machines used by police forces across B.C. are incapable of differentiating between mouth and blood alcohol, are prone to human error and should not be used to issue immediate roadside driving suspensions, according to a leading forensic scientist.
Those findings are outlined in an affidavit prepared by Nizar Shajani, a Burnaby-based forensic scientist who worked for the RCMP for 12 years and who has written numerous studies on blood-alcohol testing.
“They’re supposed to be screening devices,” Mr. Shajani said about the machines in an interview with The Globe and Mail. “Screening devices when the police suspect there is alcohol in the body, but not used for evidentiary purposes in their current form.”