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Now, E-Nose To Quickly And Reliably Reveal Smokers Without The Need For A Blood Or Urine Test

by Aruna on Sep 19 2009 9:06 AM

An electronic nose developed to foil some people's attempt to deceive their doctors by telling them that they are non-smokers, in order to get cheaper life insurance.

Paul Thomas at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, has revealed that their invention is a tweaked form of a commercially available e-nose.

The researcher says that it can detect the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the breath of a person who had smoked a cigarette.

The e-nose uses an array of 32 sensors whose electrical resistance changes as different VOCs are detected.

During a test, the researchers could correctly identified 37 out of 39 volunteers as either smokers or non-smokers relying upon on the resultant "smellprint".

Based on their observations, the team came to the conclusion that such e-noses could quickly and reliably reveal smokers without the need for a blood or urine test.

The current method of measuring the carbon monoxide content of exhaled breath to confirm smoking activity picks up a smoker for only a few hours after their last cigarette.

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It is even prone to error because it cannot tell whether carbon monoxide in the breath came from other sources such as traffic exhaust fumes.

Insurers are very interested in whether a person applying for health or life insurance smokes - for obvious reasons.

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"Some insurance providers don't ask questions about smoking at all, while others ask the question on an application form but do not require a test as the applicant is expected to answer the question honestly," New Scientist magazine quoted Kelly Ostler-Coyle, of the Association of British Insurers, as saying.

By making the test simple and reliable, an e-nose could provide doctors with the truth in minutes, according to the researchers.

They, however, admit that their system needs further testing to prove its worth.

"This e-nose idea, whilst of interest, will require larger-scale trials to demonstrate clinical efficacy and patient acceptability before it can be considered for use," says a spokesman for the UK Department of Health.

A research article describing the innovation has been published in the Journal of Breath Research.

Source-ANI
ARU


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