AlcoHAWK is an entry-level consumer breathalyzer that employs a folding mouthpiece and slim, portable design. This unit gives an estimate of blood alcohol content and is a good solution for customers looking for a discreet, easy-to-use unit.

Pop the top, throw back the beer. Thursday marks the new year.

But as New Year’s revelers chug down the bubbly, authorities say it’s important to know your limits.

Fast consumption of large amounts of alcohol can be dangerous. Significantly more people are likely to die in alcohol-related traffic crashes on New Year’s Eve than on other weekday winter evening, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Other than conservatively pacing yourself or not drinking at all when ringing in 2009, there are several tools that claim to help you known how much is too much:

For about $50, some stores sell pocket-sized alcohol detectors that with a simple blow will tell you how much alcohol is in your system. They’re sold at Walgreens in Lawrence.

At The Wheel, 14th and Ohio streets, you can put two quarters into a machine that will tell you how drunk you are. You put a straw in the machine, blow into it, and the machine comes back with your blood alcohol concentration — measured by your breath — and a statement about your drunkenness. Bar owner Rob Farha stresses the machine is only meant to be a novelty.

There are also several Web sites — including 1800duilaws.com and dui.drivinglaws.org — where you can input information about your weight and how much you plan to drink that will estimate how impaired you can expect to become. For example, if you are a man who weighs 150 pounds, and drink three 12-ounce beers and one 5-ounce glass of wine over a period of two hours, one of Web site states you can expect your blood alcohol concentration, or BAC, to be .066. The legal limit in Kansas and most other states is .08.

“If anybody wants to go to those steps to make sure they’re not impaired when they’re driving, that’s fine,” says Lawrence police Sgt. Bill Cory. “But, we also need to understand that everybody’s level of impairment and the amount of alcohol it takes to get to be impaired is different.”

The real drunkenness test could come inside the police department’s Breath Alcohol Testing van or at the Douglas County Jail, where Breathalyzers measure a driver’s blood alcohol content.

Cory also points out that officers can arrest you for operating under the influence even if you’re below the .08 limit. According to the city’s standard traffic ordinance, it’s illegal to operate a vehicle while “under the influence of alcohol to a degree that renders the person incapable of safely driving.”

So even if you use one of the suggestions above, or maybe your own method, to test your drunkenness, police say it’s always best to use a designated driver, call a cab, or make alternative plans to get home safely.

Cheers!