Take My Breath Away…And Analyze It in a Lab

For years, police have been using breath to tell when people have had a little too much to drink, by taking Breathalyzer readings to determine their blood alcohol levels. Now, some scientists are hoping that your breath could say a lot more about you than how much you've had to drink or what you ate for lunch. Science Newsreported recently on Joachim D. Pleil, a scientist with the Environmental Protection Agency who is developing technology to learn more about a person's health by analyzing their breath. An average breath, Pleil says, contains 200 different chemicals. In total, scientists have identified more than 3,000 different compounds coming out of our mouths. If researchers figure out what the makeup of a person's breath says about their health, Pleil says, the benefits to medicine could be great. The main problem for breath researchers is knowing what to look for. A patient may have ...