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How Does A Breathalyser Work for DUI in Upper Marlboro?How can a person's breath show how much that person has had to drink? Alcohol that a person drinks shows up in the breath because it gets absorbed from the mouth, throat, stomach and intestines into the bloodstream. Alcohol is not digested upon absorption or chemically changed in the bloodstream. As the blood goes through the lungs, a physiologically predictable amount of the alcohol will moves across the lung membranes and into the lungs themselves. Once in contact with the air in the lungs, it evaporates and is exhaled. The concentration of the alcohol in the air in the lungs is directly related to the concentration of the alcohol in the blood. The ratio of breath alcohol to blood alcohol is 2,100 to 1 (and called the partition ratio), so the alcohol content of 2,100 milliliters of exhaled air will be the same as for 1 milliliter of blood. The maths are simple from there and leads to blood alcohol readings expressed as a percentage of alcohol in the blood. The partition ratio can vary between 1700 and 2400 depending upon the individual and local environmental conditions, leading to a breath analysis reporting either a higher or lower calculated blood alcohol reading. |
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