School administrators in Simsbury, a town in the U.S., and other high school districts now require their students to take tests to check whether they are drunk before they can attend school dances on campus. All students are required to breathe into a breathalyzer to see if they have drunk alcohol.

Howstuffworks details how a breathalyzer works in determining the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) in a person’s organism.

Drivers who can pass roadside sobriety tests — they can touch their noses or walk a straight line — still might be breaking the legal limit for blood alcohol and be a hazard on the road. So police officers use some of the latest technology to detect alcohol levels in suspected drunken drivers and remove them from the streets.

School officials in these districts are working together with parents to struggle against underage drinking, especially at school dances. The New York Times reports that underage drinking has grown since 2002 and that school administrators feel that it is time to act.

In a Connecticut School Health Survey in 2005, more than half of 12th graders, or 59 percent, said they had used alcohol during the month, along with 48 percent of 11th graders, 42 percent of 10th graders and 35 percent of 9th graders. Over all, 45 percent of high school students surveyed said they had used alcohol, compared with 43 percent nationwide, according to the study, conducted by the State Department of Health with help from the Department of Education.

The paper also quotes Jack Sennott, the chairman of the Simsbury Board of Education, commenting on the role of breathalysers and their use.

“It doesn’t solve the problem of teenage drinking. But it solves the problem of teenage drinking at school dances.”

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