con-pilot, that's an interesting list you propose for regular breath testing for alcohol. In addition to President Obama, as proposed by seven-stroke-roll.
Let me go down the list and see if these are comparable to piloting an aircraft in risk to the general public.
1) Surgeons generally only kill one patient at a time.
2) Train drivers don't have to steer or navigate, and they usually survive mid track collisions
3) Truck and bus drivers and car drivers and police officers constitute such an enormous population of potential drinkers that setting up a universal pre-driving or pre-use of firearms breath test would be impractical. They also usually only kill one or two victims at a time.
4) Ship captains, since the Titanic, usually carry sufficient lifeboats and have time to use them if they do something stupid, like showing off and running aground. This is not necessarily true in third world countries, or smuggling illegal aliens into Europe or the United States, but once again, enforcement is impractical.
So sorry, all you sensitive airline pilots, suffering from six monthly medicals, yearly sim sessions, and the financial squeeze of salary that is always a problem for pilots and librarians - if it is a desirable occupation, there is an oversupply of aspirants. Supply and demand. So guess you'll just have to pucker up and blow.
Last edited by mary meagher; 8th Jan 2013 at 10:38.