KEY POINTS:
The electronic monitoring device Lindsay Lohan was wearing on her ankle when she was arrested for drink-driving this week failed to save the actress from a relapse of alcohol abuse.
But the company that makes and markets the ankle bracelet stands behind its product, saying the device is not meant to be a magic cure for addiction.
"A lot of people just don't understand how the device works," said Don White, an executive at Alcohol Monitoring Systems.
The Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor, or SCRAM, has become an increasingly popular tool in court-ordered rehabilitation programmes in the US.
About 40,000 people nationwide have used the device, some of them voluntarily, as in Lohan's case, Mr White said.
Worn around the lower leg or ankle, the monitor detects whether a person has been drinking by measuring the evaporation of alcohol from perspiration on the surface of the individual's skin, using essentially the same technology as a breath tester.
Data from the device is then transmitted electronically to the company's field operations personnel, who pass it to a probation officer, counsellor or other person assigned to oversee the patient's recovery.
But data from the bracelet can be collected only when the wearer is within 9m to 15m of a special wireless transmitter, usually placed in the person's home.
In Lohan's case, her lawyer, Blair Berk, was designated to receive SCRAM updates and was reported to have tried in vain to find her on Tuesday on learning of a possible relapse in the hours before her arrest.
Mr White, who declined to comment specifically on Lohan, said negative publicity surrounding her case overshadowed the problems faced by the estimated 18 million Americans who suffer from alcohol abuse.
"We're trying to help the courts with this serious social problem and we ask that people not minimise it in light of celebrity use," he said.
Lohan, who shot to stardom in Disney films such as Freaky Friday and The Parent Trap, has recently moved on to more adult roles.
In her latest film, I Know Who Killed Me, which opens in the US this weekend, she plays a stripper. New Zealander Jessica Rose also appears.
It remains to be seen whether Lohan's latest relapse and brush with the law will cost her the role she landed in Poor Things, an upcoming film to be produced by and star Oscar-winner Shirley MacLaine.
Production of that film has been on hold since Lohan entered rehab for a second time in May.
- Reuters
