Along with enjoying beverages and socializing with friends, students and bar attendees can now find out their blood alcohol content level, or BAC, through breathalyzers that have cropped up in many Campustown bars.

Josh Flahaven, general manager of The Clybourne and Firehaus Restaurant and Bar, both located in Champaign on Sixth Street, said the company was approached by an outside vendor from the Chicago area with the idea of installing breathalyzers.

For $1, patrons can blow through a straw and the machine will read their BAC.

Lt. Skip Frost of University police said he was not aware of the new machines and that they were not enforcement tools being used by police. While Frost said he believes they are a smart idea, he added there are “no hidden cameras” and “we’re not going to follow (patrons) to the parking lot.”

Flahaven said he believes the bar is providing a service and encourages the notion that “everyone needs to be responsible with (using the breathalyzer).” He said he sees the breathalyzers as “another way to communicate to customers” and as a tool for business owners to take responsibility for the health of their patrons. Sometimes, Flahaven added, a potential client may be too intoxicated to enter the establishment. In this case, the breathalyzer can serve as a visual representation for that person to understand his or her level of impairment.

Flahaven said there has been positive feedback regarding the breathalyzers and he has witnessed people who chose not to drive after drinking because of the results from the machine.

Kam’s, a bar located on Daniel Street in Champaign, has also recently installed a breathalyzer from a Chicago-area vendor.

Eric Meyer, owner of Kam’s, said he considers the breathalyzer to be a “valuable tool to judge one’s intoxication before they get behind the wheel.”

But Meyer added that there could be negative consequences, such as patrons making it a game or “using the machine multiple times to try to become intoxicated.”

Taylor Stuckly, freshman in DGS, said he thought the breathalyzers were “weird” and sounded like a ploy to encourage people to drink.

Zack Harrell, sophomore in LAS, and Gina Dunn, sophomore in FAA, both said they were not aware of the new breathalyzers but thought it was a “cool idea.”

Both added, however, that they thought adding breathalyzers was not a serious enough contribution.