08% or more but failed to mention breath alcohol concentration. However, breath-test devices don't measure blood alcohol-they measure breath alcohol concentration.įor many years, "per se" DUI laws prohibited driving with a BAC of. The Relationship Between Breath and Blood Alcoholīecause of the advantages, most officers favor using breathalyzers to testing a suspect's blood. Also, most DUI suspects much prefer blowing into a breathalyzer tube to having a phlebotomist jab them with a needle. Police don't need medical personnel to use a breathalyzer, and the results are instantaneous. And blood results aren't quick: It can take a month or more for a lab to analyze the sample and report the results.īreath tests, on the other hand, don't suffer the same flaws. The officer must take the suspect to a place-usually a medical facility or police station-where a phlebotomist or other medical personnel extracts the blood sample. Police often disfavor blood tests because they involve burdensome procedures. Other drivers have medical conditions, such as hemophilia, that make blood testing a bad option. Many drivers simply don't like having blood drawn-it can be painful and some even have a needle phobia. (To get a rough idea of how BAC relates to the number of drinks consumed, see our BAC chart and BAC calculator.) How Police Measure BACīlood and breath tests are the two most common methods police use for measuring how much a person has had to drink.įor drivers and police alike, blood testing can be troublesome. That's why DUI laws use BAC as a marker for whether a person is under the influence. So there's a correlation between BAC and impairment. "BAC" is short for "blood alcohol concentration"-a measurement of how much alcohol is in a person's blood. And an especially high BAC can increase the already-severe penalties for DUI. In every state, you can get a DUI if you drive with a BAC of.
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