Alcoholics and Breathalyzers
Posted by Lawrence Taylor on August 26th, 2008It may not surprise you to find out that alcoholics arrested for DUI will generally have higher blood-alcohol readings. It may surprise you, however, to learn that individuals having the disease of alcoholism will generally have higher blood-alcohol readings because they are alcoholics…..
That’s right. It’s because the physiology of alcoholics is different in some important respects. One of those is that their bodies produce more acetaldehyde — far more. Acetaldehyde? That’s a compound produced in the liver in small amounts as a by-product in the metabolism of alcohol. Unfortunately, alcohol in the lungs has been found to metabolize there as well as in the liver — and to produce acetaldehyde there.
The amount of acetaldehyde produced in the lungs (to then be breathed into the breathalyzer) varies from person to person. “Origin of Breath Acetaldehyde During Ethanol Oxidation: Effect of Long-Term Cigarette Smoking”, 100 Journal of Laboratory Clinical Medicine 908. But in a study focusing on alcoholics, researchers discovered that the amount of acetaldehyde in the breath and blood of alcoholics was 5 to 55 times higher than that in nonalcoholics. “Elevated Blood Acetaldehyde in Alcoholics and Accelerated Ethanol Elimination”, 13 (Supp 1) Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior 119.
End result: since breathalyzers can’t tell the difference between alcohol and acetaldehyde (see earlier post, “Why Breathalyzers Don’t Measure Alcohol”), alcoholics will usually have falsely higher blood-alcohol readings.
This is a very interesting story to me, as I am probably an alcoholic. The proper term would be a beeraholic as I don’t even like to get drunk, but I have at least 3 to 6 beers a day. I also smoke cigarettes, at least a pack a day. I didn’t mention in an earlier post about my case any of this as I didn’t know about such, but the ‘normal’ equation of how many beers I had before driving in comparison to what my breathalyser reading did not add up unless I my last beer while I was driving (which was not the case, it had been a few hours prior). I have since found some online calculators that are both conservative and liberal on the amount of ‘alcohol loss’ per hour and according to both, my BAC should have been about 0.06 to 0.04 respectively due to the amount of beers that I had and time that occurred in consuming those beers. My optional blood alcohol test showed higher than the ’scientific’ amount of alcohol that should have been present in my system. I wonder if acetaldehyde is present in blood as well as in the breath. It makes sense that it would be. I also wonder since it took 3 weeks to get my blood test back if it didn’t sit around and ferment because of my blood sugar until it waited to get tested. None of the math adds up in my case according to the ’standards’ of blood alcohol chemistry and the tests that were run. Unfortunately, the courts have no place for science when it comes to DWIs.
Comment by donleedon — August 27, 2008 @ 5:37 am
Breathalyzer “technology” is very inaccurate, not taking into account a person’s body weight, physical makeup and sometimes not even accurately taking a person’s blood-alcohol content. Yet, courts continue to allow this inaccurate science to put countless persons in jail.
Comment by joe — August 27, 2008 @ 7:16 am
Sounds like I am screwed too. I smoke and drink alot. I enjoy it. I have my wife or friends drive if I have even one beer. After my DUI, and I won the case, I’ll never give the bastar** another shot at me. The cop had his mind made up the instant I was pulled over, first words were “how many have you had tonight”. I was supposedly weaving, (not true), but then I had no rights anyway, did I?
Comment by koivisto — August 27, 2008 @ 5:00 pm