UK personal breathalyser manufacturer AlcoSense has debunked a number of common myths about drink driving and reinforced that only time will reduce your blood alcohol content (BAC).
AlcoSense CEO, Hunter Abbott, said attempts to beat the breatho were futile and often made matters worse.
“Breathalysers are pretty foolproof devices and if you have been drinking there is no escaping a positive result.
“The best advice for anyone who has had a drink is, don’t drive. You will always find people trying them [urban myths]. But police have seen them all and if they think you are trying it on, you will get more closely examined,” Mr Abbott said.
AlcoSense says drinking strong coffee or lots of water, vomiting, sucking on a copper coin, taking cold showers, and getting exercise and fresh air do nothing to reduce the alcohol content in your blood.
Indeed, many “breatho beaters” often inflate the reading.
Holding your breath before the test causes the concentration of alcohol in the air in the lungs, as air is not passing through them but you blood continues to flow around.
Trying to burp it out causes liquids and gases in the stomach – including any alcohol – to rise up into the soft tissue of the oesophagus and oral cavity where they remain until they naturally dissipate.
Spraying breath fresheners can also give a falsely elevated reading, as most sprays contain a high concentration of mint.
And although hyperventilating does have the effect of lowering your breath sample, the police are on to this, and combat it with the pre-test chat and assessment.
The current legal Australian drink drive limit is 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood (0.5 percent) or 0.05 BAC. The UK limit is 0.08 BAC.
They are simple to beat. When they ask you to blow in the straw, suck instead.
They are not straws anymore, its just a small hole in the device that you speak into. When I got breath tested (NSW) in January 2007, they had me count to five out loud.
:) so to lower a reading, breathing in and out 100 times very quickly helps :)
Thanks for that advice.
But Seeing as i dont drink AT ALL! i’ve never had to worry about it.
Yes… but you probably do have to worry about getting a life…
Oh wow yeah i didnt know hyperventilating would help, thanks =D
myself and a mate done a interesting “trial” at the penny panthers leagues club many years ago.i’m 140kg’s and he is 80kgs ringing wet.we went “hammer and tong’s” bourbon and coke all night.i stopped for macca’s at 11pm,he didn’t.at 1.30am we both went on the breathalyser’s in the foyer.he blew 0.285,i blew 0.08.
i reckon size and food digested was alot to do with it…
maybe they should put breathalyser at pubs
There are some place that have breathalysers mounted on walls as such but I doubt they would hold up in court.
They would get used hundreds of times per night and they would not be callibrated properly.
I think they are dangerous to have in a pub as I have seen groups of people (me included) use them to see who can get the highest BAC.
hahahahahahahahahahaha taht’s awesome!
Seems like Simon isn’t as well informed as he would think. The breath testers used by Police are able to detect a “Suck Back”. As the old saying goes “A little knowledge is dangerous”
Hyperventilating. Got it. Thanks guys.
I would imagine there’s probably some truth to the smoking “myth” too.
No, Your not removing the alcohol by smoking. Your blood is in your lungs and the air you breath out was in your lungs. By hyperventilating your lowering the alcohol concentration of the blood in your lungs by saturating the blood with oxygen and evaporating out the alcohol. Smoking does nothing it just adds other chemicals that the tester doesn’t measure.
In NSW, those that ‘suck back’ and do it enough times, fail to comply with the direction for a breath test, are arrested for the purpose of a breath analysis conveyed back to teh POlice station or nearest ‘booze bus’ and if they still play games and fail to take part in the breath analysis are charged with failing to take the test, the maximum available court penalty for which is equivalent to a high range charge. So, try your games people, most of us have seen it before, and I’ve charged a few with ‘fail to supply’. Of course most snap to it when they realise that it’s not a game and I won’t stand there all night humouring them.
Hey! You can beat it. Your name just has to be Eugene Magee!
Best way to beat a breathalyser is not to drink. Try it!!
If you drink ANYTHING and drive, you are a complete and utter idiot.
I don’t care that you are putting your own life at risk but it is the innocent victims that don’t deserve to have their lives shattered by your idiocy.
not all drinks are alcoholic noob