Warsaw. Breathalyzer at the Vistula Boulevards. How it works?

At the beginning of August, a breathalyzer appeared on Kahl Square in Warsaw, at Tamka Street, at the entrance to the Vistula Boulevards, which are popular among Warsaw residents. This is a breathalyzer from PROMILER, a manufacturer of breathalyzers. The company assured that it is the first such device in the world and that it works regardless of weather conditions.

The breathalyzer is publicly available and works 24 hours a day. – It is operated with one button, and measurement is possible after paying by payment card. At the time of writing this information, the cost of measurement is PLN 5. Using the breathalyzer is simple and intuitive, just follow the instructions displayed on the device’s screen to receive the measurement result in a few moments – explains PROMILER in a press release.

The initiator of this project is the Office of Social Aid and Projects of the Capital City of Warsaw. In 2018, it came up with the idea of ​​installing a publicly available breathalyzer.

– We wanted to make it easier for residents to check their sobriety on their own. Everyone can voluntarily check how the amount of alcohol they drink affects their body. We assume that this will increase the ability of self-control among people who are interested in measurements and will have a positive impact on increasing the level of safety on Warsaw streets. The project is a pilot and we will look at how it meets the needs of residents – said Tomasz Pakcji, Director of the Office of Aid and Social Projects in Warsaw, quoted in the release.

As noted, the choice of where to install the breathalyzer is not accidental. Locating the device at the crossing towards the popular Vistula Boulevards is the concept of the Capital Aid and Social Projects Office. It was explained that in summer it is full of people potentially interested in checking their condition at any time of the day or night. – The popularity of the PROMILER breathalyzer seems to confirm this, because despite frequent rainfall during the first month of the breathalyzer’s operation, nearly 500 people used it – the release added.

As PROMILER explains in a press release, measuring alcohol in exhaled air is a complicated process that requires stable temperature, humidity and pressure conditions, which is why “until now, there have been no devices of this type in the world.” A manufacturer of breathalyzers decided to create a breathalyzer. – We started research and development work on a breathalyzer that would be able to work unattended in all weather conditions in 2014. The interest of the Warsaw Social Project Office meant that we allocated much more resources to this project and here it is after 4 years – said Mikołaj Witczak, the manufacturer’s representative, quoted in the release.

The PROMILER alco bollard has been designed to work continuously in almost any weather conditions with a precision of +/- 10% of the result. – We have made every effort to eliminate the influence of fluctuations in environmental conditions on the operation of the alcopost, but work in the laboratory must be confronted with reality and with a real user – this is the purpose of the pilot project in Warsaw – added the representative of PROMILER. However, the manufacturer stipulates that the results should be treated as indicative only.

PROMILER sp. z o. o. is a Polish manufacturer that has been specializing in designing devices for measuring the alcohol content in exhaled air for 20 years. As the company explained, these are both professional breathalyzers used by uniformed services throughout Poland, as well as personal breathalyzers with very high precision.