HAVE YOU EVER TAKEN A BREATHALYZER TEST?

Day 169 of the Lower Puna Eruption, and...

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I was in Long's CVS earlier this week and noticed that a simple BACtrack breathalyzer could be bought for $60.  Heck, I've had many lunches for more than this amount, so purchased it to continue my role as a medical white rat.  You can go to Amazon and find similar devices between $22 and $130.

There is an alcohol concentration correlation between your breath and blood, with the content in 2100 milliliters (ml) of your breath being equal to that in 1 ml of your blood.  Each breath is around 500 ml.  Alcohol is a depressant, relaxing your muscles and fuzzying your eyesight.  Brain activity, judgement, reflexes and coordination are slowed.  There is reduced awareness of danger, making you overconfident, and perhaps reckless.  So get high at home, but not while driving.

Of course, there are various factors like weight, gender, etc., that affect your Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) value:

Blood Alcohol   Effects

Content

0.02 - 0.03%     slight euphoria, loss of shyness

0.04 - 006%      euphoria, slight impairment of reasoning and memory

0.07 - 0.09%     driving skills are impaired

0.10 - 0.12%     speech slurred and driving skills severely impaired

0.13 - 0.15%     blurred vision, loss of balance, lack of physical control

0.16 - 0.20%     dysphoria predominates, nauseousness

0.25%               assistance in walking, mental confusion

0.30%               loss of consciousness

So yesterday, I had a lunch of ikura (salmon eggs) and fried eggs over rice, tomato soup, tsukemono (pickled vegetables) and a 12 ounce bottle of Sapporo Light Beer at 3.2% alcohol on my lanai and made my first measurements:

1100                 0.000%   First sip

1105     5 min   0.045%   Half bottle

1110   10 min   0.028%   3/4 bottle

1115   15 min   0.075%   7/8bottle

1120   20 min   0.228%   whole bottle

1125   25 min   0.105%

1130   30 min   0.010%

1230   1h 30m  0.000%

Why 0.228% at 20 minute mark?  This is almost three times the legal limit.  Answer to come.

Then, the 15 Craigside Poker Group had a dinner on our Solarium that night.  I drunk half a bottle of 2012 Foxglove Chardonnay at 13.6% ethanol.

1725                0.000%   first sip

1750   25 min  0.190%   3 oz

1805   40 min  0.162%   6 oz

1825   60 min  0.127%   half a bottle

1900   95 min  0.129%   half a bottle +

1915  110 min                 cup of coffee

1925   2 hours  0.021%

1930   115 min 0.017%

2125   3 hours  0.020%

This made no sense to me, for I was entirely coherent through the whole meal.  Coffee lowering the BAC value surprised me, for I thought this was not possible.

So I experimented again the next day, when the 15C 12th floor had a pizza outing in our Solarium.  I drunk a bottle (12 oz) of Steel Reserve Beer at 8.1% alcohol:

1445                 0.000%    first sip

1450   10 min   0.250%   1/4 bottle

1505   20 min   0.077%   1 bottle

1510   25 min   0.139%    no more

1600   75 min   0.011%    no more

Again, it made no sense.  Why so high?  THEN I READ THE INSTRUCTIONS.  It was clear:  don't eat anything when taking these measurements.

So I then swallowed an ounce of White Label Scotch at 40% alcohol.

1602                 0.005%           1 oz scotch

1605     3 min   0.085%

1612   10 min   0.015%

1630   30 min   0.013%

1655   50 min   0.010%

This ounce of scotch exceeded the 0.08% legal limit within 3 minutes, but, the BAC quickly dropped, possibly because I had so much pizza in my stomach.

So, at this initial stage of white rat experimentation, three points to remember.  First, don't have remnants of any food in your mouth when you blow into the breathalyzer, for contained is residual alcohol that materially can increase the alcohol measurement.  Of course, don't drive when drunk, but if you must and have the opportunity, wash out your mouth with a lot of water before taking the wheel.  Second, and this is a supposition:  the more food in your stomach, possibly the alcohol content might lower faster over time. Third, coffee might help.  The combination of food and coffee affecting BAC is a debatable subject.  Most studies seem to say that it depends on various circumstances, but generally, don't expect food and coffee to lower your BAC.  This I will need to validate or not when I soon make another run at these BAC measurements.

Under any circumstances, don't drink and drive.  Any BAC value above zero is detrimental to your driving performance.

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