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New Patch
Nixes the Liquid Lunch By Louise Knapp Story
location: http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,61158,00.html 02:00 AM
Nov. 26, 2003 PT When
boarding a plane, dropping off the kids with the nanny or watching a 10-wheeler
careening down the highway, the last thing you want to worry about is whether
the pilot, nanny or driver has been imbibing something stronger than coffee. Some
reassurance may be offered from an alcohol-monitoring skin patch being
developed by SpectRx. The wireless patch is placed over four tiny holes made in
the employee's skin, through which small samples of fluid are continuously
tested. The test results are then transmitted to a receiver. If the
monitor picks up a whiff of alcohol, the transmission is altered to alert
officials manning the receivers so the airline pilot can be grounded, the
children rescued from the nanny and the vehicle disabled with an ignition-lock
system, keeping the would-be drunk driver off the road. SpectRx will
begin human clinical studies in the first half of 2004. If all goes well, the
device could be ready for market in three years. While good
news for employers wanting to ensure their work force stays away from the
booze, employees may find the device hard to swallow. "Anything
that is this invasive will cause a lot of push back. Nobody wants to be
monitored quite that closely," said Captain James Shilling, a pilot for a
major cargo airline and spokesman for The Coalition of Airline Pilots
Associations. While
employers may, in some industries, be within their legal rights to enforce this
kind of monitoring, it could end up causing a headache to rival any hangover. "Employees
are going to hate it -- they will feel it's none of your business. If employers
think about it carefully, they may find it would be more prudent for them not
to pursue this," said Michael Zimmer, professor at Seton Hall Law School
in New Jersey. On-the-job imbibing
is currently monitored by random checks in which a blood or urine sample is
taken and analyzed. Gregg Overman, communications director for the Allied
Pilots Association, said these tests are more than adequate to do the job. "Pilots
are already subject to random testing and biannual physicals, so they are
highly monitored already -- possibly more so than any other industry in the
United States," Overman said. But Bill
Wells, media spokesman for SpectRx, said current methods are limited. "The current
ones are point-in-time tests -- the state of affairs only at the time the test
is taken," said Wells. "Ours would allow for continuous monitoring,
it can determine how much alcohol there is in the body, and it can do this in
real time." Assistant professor
Kelly Timmons of Georgia State University's College of Law said the case for
constant monitoring could be made if employers prove that drunk employees could
cause a lot of damage. "So it
could be used for nuclear power plant employees, for instance, or airline
pilots," she said. For the
monitor to work, employees first have to have four microscopic holes -- about
the size of a human hair -- burnt into the outer layer of their skin by a
handheld laser. A small amount of dye, designed specifically to react with the
laser, is placed on the skin. "It
creates a small explosion that runs of out of energy at a very shallow
depth," Wells said. "It's a feat of violence in a very small area."
Despite all
this violence, Wells said you hardly feel a thing. "I've had it done to
myself very many times. It's a sensation you notice, but it's not at all
painful," he said. Next, the
patch, made of a transparent blue plastic, is applied over the holes.
"It's typically done on the torso but can be worn on the buttocks or
thigh," Wells said. The oval
patch houses a miniature vacuum pump that sucks out interstitial fluid, a
clear, water-like fluid that surrounds cells in the body. "The
pump is a very simple device -- it's like a rubber bulb you depress, and as it
fills back up with air it creates a vacuum and pulls the sample out,"
Wells said. The patch
contains a chemical designed to react if it comes into contact with any alcohol
in the sample. An electrochemical sensor, also housed in the patch, senses any
changes in the chemical reaction and converts these changes into an electrical
signal. The more
alcohol detected, the greater the change in the electrical signal, so the
employer can know exactly how drunk the employee is. This signal
is transmitted to a small receiver, about the size of a pack of cigarettes,
installed in the cockpit, nursery or truck cab. The information from this
receiver is then relayed to a monitoring station. "This
could be a manned station or a computer that tracks the data, and once it
reaches a certain threshold it could send out the alarm," Wells said. The system,
including the laser and small receiver box, will be priced at about $300. The
patches, which last for three days, would cost around $12 each. Charles
Mims |
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