As part of Impaired Driving Prevention Month, Sobering Up is taking a look back at the year’s Top 12 Newsmakers in the fight against alcohol-involved crime and Impaired Driving. This post is Part 8 of 12.
In October the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released a study on Transdermal Alcohol Monitoring. The report, which took an in-depth look at six jurisdictions in the U.S. using SCRAM transdermal alcohol monitors, recognized the testing technology as an effective tool that protects the public from future impaired driving incidents.
Transdermal Alcohol Monitoring: Case Studies was conducted in order to provide a variety of program models for jurisdictions looking to implement transdermal testing. The case studies cover a wide variety of program models.
The NHTSA study is part of the agency’s Impaired Driving program and the second of a three-part series that focuses specifically on transdermal testing. Transdermal testing involves an ankle bracelet, worn 24/7, that takes a sample of a subject’s insensible perspiration every 30 minutes to measure for alcohol consumption.
NHTSA’s interest in transdermal monitoring is a Top 12 newsmaker in 2012 because it expands the agency’s focus beyond technologies that monitor vehicles to those that are designed to modify human behavior. And that focus validates the agency’s contention that modifying human behavior will improve highways safety and further efforts to eliminate Impaired Driving.
The NHTSA study concluded that transdermal ankle monitors are prevalent, beneficial to courts and agencies, serve as a strong deterrent to drinking, and are more effective than prior monitoring techniques, such as random alcohol testing, which were reported by agencies as inadequate.
The third installment of the transdermal monitoring studies is slated for release in 2013, and will focus specifically on assessing the long-term impact SCRAM transdermal alcohol monitoring on impaired driving recidivism rates across the U.S.
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