Some­times in life things just work out to be way beyond funny….

Alco­hol Mon­i­tor­ing Sys­tems, Inc. mar­kets a prod­uct they call “Secure Con­tin­u­ous Alco­hol Mon­i­tor­ing” (SCRAM and SCRAMx) devices.  It is per­haps best known as the Lind­say Lohan court-ordered fash­ion acces­sory.  Well, it seems that SCRAM has an acces­sory of its own that could get you in trouble…

SCRAM and SCRAMx is this company’s method of con­tin­u­ous trans­der­mal alco­hol mon­i­tor­ing (CTAM).

They make the incred­i­ble claims that they can tell remotely of a drink­ing event based upon trans­der­mal excre­tion (per­spi­ra­tion).  They also claim that they can tell the dif­fer­ence con­clu­sively between casual con­tact and an actual drink­ing event.  They even go so far as to claim on their literature:

SCRAMx is the indus­try leader in CAM and house arrest because it…  Has been val­i­dated by thou­sands of courts nation­wide, with judges rec­og­niz­ing the device as accu­rate, reli­able, and gen­er­ally accepted…  Con­clu­sively dis­tin­guishes between ingested and envi­ron­men­tal alco­hol…  Pro­vides single-source admis­si­bil­ity, with no need for back-up tests.

(Source: http://alcoholmonitoring.com/ams_files/resources/SCRAMxdatasheet.pdf retrieved Novem­ber 8, 2010).

In terms of mon­i­tor­ing ethyl alco­hol (ETOH) con­sump­tion trans­der­mally, one can use either sen­si­ble per­spi­ra­tion (liq­uid phase) exam­i­na­tion or insen­si­ble per­spi­ra­tion (gaseous phase) exam­i­na­tion or both.  SCRAM and SCRAMx use a method of mea­sur­ing trans­der­mal alco­hol in the insen­si­ble phase.  The col­lected mate­ri­als are then ana­lyzed by an elec­tro­chem­i­cal sen­sor in the bracelet hous­ing.  This is used to esti­mate the con­cen­tra­tion of ETOH in the body.  The mea­sure is the amount of Trans­der­mal Alco­hol Con­cen­tra­tion or TAC.  In terms of val­i­dated sci­ence, the cor­re­la­tion between TAC and true BAC due to exclu­sively ETOH con­sump­tion is not well-known or con­clu­sively estab­lished within the sci­en­tific community.

A great friend and col­league of mine Patrick Barone, Esquire of Michi­gan has repeat­edly exam­ined the lim­i­ta­tion of this assay in his writings:

• SCRAM Alco­hol Mon­i­tor­ing Ankle Bracelets: Junk Sci­ence Or Impor­tant Sci­en­tific Breakthrough?
• Michi­gan Judge Finds Alco­hol Mon­i­tor­ing Device to be Unreliable

I would com­mend you to read his works.

The funny comes into play because of what I saw.  I was invited to speak recently at a DUI Defense sem­i­nar for a par­tic­u­lar state.  At these sem­i­nars are typ­i­cally ven­dors who are there to influ­ence atten­dees and offer ser­vices.  SCRAM is no dif­fer­ent.  Sev­eral rep­re­sen­ta­tives from SCRAM were there.  They, like all of the ven­dors, were there to pro­mote their prod­uct.  As all ven­dors do, and SCRAM was no dif­fer­ent, they have “take away items” or items that they give away with their company’s logo–some sort of use­ful trin­ket.  This one caught my eye.

SCRAM ven­dor take away: antibac­te­r­ial hand san­i­tizer spray

SCRAM ven­dor take away reverse side

SCRAM ven­dor take away Active Ingre­di­ent Ethyl Alco­hol 62%

Not iso­propyl alco­hol, which most other antibac­te­r­ial hand san­i­tizer sprays fea­ture (e.g., see this one), but the full octane ethyl alco­hol (ETOH) which the device is set up to detect.

SCRAM Warn­ing Label

Why isn’t there a warn­ing for those under mon­i­tor­ing by SCRAM to not use the SCRAM’s own antibac­te­r­ial hand san­i­tizer spray????  It’s a funny world we live in, isn’t it?