Quote:
|
The Breathalyzer isn't measuring alcohol that's "left over" in your mouth/tongue, etc when you drink, but rather it's measuring alcohol that comes out of your pores/bloodstream in your mouth.
|
It actually has nothing to do with your pores or mouth. Even with two shots of vodka sitting in your mouth, if you can blow deeply from your lungs you'll have a 0.00 BAC (+/- 0.005).
Quote:
Alcohol is not digested upon absorption, nor chemically changed in the bloodstream. As the blood goes through the lungs, some of the alcohol moves across the membranes of the lung's air sacs (alveoli) into the air, because alcohol will evaporate from a solution -- that is, it is volatile. The concentration of the alcohol in the alveolar air is related to the concentration of the alcohol in the blood. As the alcohol in the alveolar air is exhaled, it can be detected by the breath alcohol testing device. Instead of having to draw a driver's blood to test his alcohol level, an officer can test the driver's breath on the spot and instantly know if there is a reason to arrest the driver.
Because the alcohol concentration in the breath is related to that in the blood, you can figure the BAC by measuring alcohol on the breath. The ratio of breath alcohol to blood alcohol is 2,100:1. This means that 2,100 milliliters (ml) of alveolar air will contain the same amount of alcohol as 1 ml of blood.
|
http://science.howstuffworks.com/breathalyzer.htm
EDIT: a bit offtopic, but I was just thinking -- how fun would it have been to be the "tester" for the first "Breathalyzers" ?
__________________
"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel
Last edited by Jinn; 08-15-2005 at 06:38 AM..
|