Drink driving - got away with it?
- Thread starter salami1212
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Man of Honour
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Fluoride does nothing of the sort.
Fluoride is only in toothpaste because it helps prevent tooth decay in children (no known benefit in adults) and certainly doesn't help get rid of the smell - that is due to other compounds - the ones that make it minty.
Any sort of misbehaviour in an attempt to fool a breathalyser at the roadside could well be interpreted as failure to provide, meaning arrest. Similar messing about in front of an evidential breath test instrument at a police station will lead to a charge for failing to provide, which can attract harsher penalties than a drink-drive charge. If breath specimens vary significantly on the EBTI, then the officer will generally make a requirement for a blood specimen. Again, failing to provide leads straight to charge.
I hate drink drivers. The highest reading I've seen is 187 microgrammes about three months ago. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes. The Mags threw the book at the muppet, thankfully. He had been nicked following a collision.
I hate drink drivers. The highest reading I've seen is 187 microgrammes about three months ago. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes. The Mags threw the book at the muppet, thankfully. He had been nicked following a collision.
Dunno about 6 cans, but technically it may be possible, I remember watching traffic cops where a guy in a van was caught red handed drinking a can of beer, he got away with it because the reading was too low!
I don't think you're allowed to drive if there's an open alcoholic drink in the car, but I don't have any actual evidence for this 
But it would explain why taxi drivers won't let you take drinks into the car, although that could also just be them not wanting anything spilled on the seats.
But it would explain why taxi drivers won't let you take drinks into the car, although that could also just be them not wanting anything spilled on the seats.
The no open alcohol in the car is an american law, people can be drinking in the car perfectly legally, it's not directly illegal for you to be either, but the police will probably do you for something like "without due care and attention" for being such a prat.
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Slowly.Anyone drink driving should be shot.
I was once told by a Doctor that the only thing that has a hope in hell of fooling a breathalyser is hyperventilating immediately before taking the test, which is why you are always asked a few questions before the test is administered . . . allegedly.
ps - Anyone drink driving should be shot - again, just to make sure.
The lipid portion of CO2??? Can you tell me where you got all this from?
I was watching a TV program the other day, hosted by R.Hammond.
They ran a test.
2 guys drank the same amount of alcohol.
Man1 drank alcohol on an empty stomach and didnt eat while drinking alcohol.
Man2 drank the same unit count of alcohol, only he was eating dinner while drinking.
They then did a breath test.
Man1's breathalyser count was about 500% higher than Man2's.
If your mate was eating a lot of food while drinking 6 cans of beer, I believe it is possible that he could pass the breathalyser test.
Myself, Ive never drank, so I'm not sure about the effects of 6 cans of beer, however, as I understand it, beer's alcohol concentration is very low, so it takes longer to ingest that quantity of alcohol, compared to if you were drinking pure (high concentration) Vodka.
They ran a test.
2 guys drank the same amount of alcohol.
Man1 drank alcohol on an empty stomach and didnt eat while drinking alcohol.
Man2 drank the same unit count of alcohol, only he was eating dinner while drinking.
They then did a breath test.
Man1's breathalyser count was about 500% higher than Man2's.
If your mate was eating a lot of food while drinking 6 cans of beer, I believe it is possible that he could pass the breathalyser test.
Myself, Ive never drank, so I'm not sure about the effects of 6 cans of beer, however, as I understand it, beer's alcohol concentration is very low, so it takes longer to ingest that quantity of alcohol, compared to if you were drinking pure (high concentration) Vodka.
This explains a great many things about you, sunama.
I don't think you're allowed to drive if there's an open alcoholic drink in the car, but I don't have any actual evidence for this
But it would explain why taxi drivers won't let you take drinks into the car, although that could also just be them not wanting anything spilled on the seats.
In some US states yes. Not the UK. Yet...
Actually, I was referring to the lipid portion of ethanol, which you'd have noticed if you read the post above it, and I refrained from describing it as the non-polar part to try to avoid confusion amongst non-scientifically-minded readers.
6 cans is enough to get your average person who drinks occasionally thoroughly wasted, if it's in under 2 hours.
6 litres in 10 minutes is however doable, if you believe some of the posts floating around GD yesterday
Damn! I used to think that cans of beer werent really that strong. It makes me wonder about those people I see on trains who walk around with cans of beer with them. Perhaps these people are alcoholics and need to be in close proximity to alcohol, if only to calm their nerves?
6 litres in 10 minutes is however doable, if you believe some of the posts floating around GD yesterday
LMAO
6 litres is a lot.
but this scientifically-minded reader is confused. The amount of CO2 in the blood is very small as it is nearly all transported as bicarbonate. I just wanted to know where the connection between pressure of CO2 and ethanol derives from. As, iirc, CO2 is (reversibly) converted to bicarbonate in the lungs by carbonic anhydrase and wonder how that is connected to exhaling ethanol.
I am genuinely interested.
The two are unrelated, but they both have similar properties. We can disregard the mechanism of CO2 transport because as the CO2 concentration in the blood drops, the CO2 equilibrium: [ H+ + HCO3- <=> H2O + CO2 ] shifts to reverse the drop in CO2; that is to say, hydrogen ions and bicarbonate ions react to form water and carbon dioxide. For the purposes of this example, bicarb can be considered CO2.
I don't recall normal partial pressures so the values I'm about to use are arbitrary.
In normal breathing, you have a pCO2 in the air of 0.5, a pCO2 in the lungs of 3 and a pCO2 in the blood of 5, and a pCO2 in the tissues of 7. So CO2 diffuses out of the tissues into the bloodstream, and out of the bloodstream into the alveoli of the lungs - there is a continuous concentration gradient, if you like. This maintains the pCO2 in the blood within normal ranges (4.5-6kPa IIRC).
The pCO2 in the lungs is dependent on how rapidly and how deeply you breath - e.g. are you completely replacing the lung air with atmospheric air? And how frequently are you doing this?. Obviously, the more quickly you breath, the more atmospheric air you will get in your lungs, and so the pCO2 in the lungs will lower towards 0.5. The same applies with taking deeper breaths. Enter hyperventilation:
In hyperventilation, you reduce the pCO2 in the lungs to 1. This increases the rate at which you clear CO2 from the blood - instead of there being a concentration gradient of 2 (pCO2 in blood = 5, pCO2 in lungs = 3), there is a concentration gradient of 4 (pCO2 in blood = 5, pCO2 in lungs = 1). The rate of CO2 clearance has doubled, and if you keep hyperventilating for 30s, the pCO2 in the blood will drop to 3, and the pCO2 in the tissues will undergo a similar drop, to 5. Basically, a new equilibrium has been set up, with the baseline CO2 level lower than the previous baseline, so CO2 concentrations throughout the body have dropped accordingly - you are breathing out CO2 faster than you are producing it.
With me so far?
Now, supposing we were breathalysing for CO2 instead of alcohol. Ordinarily, we'd breath out a pCO2 of 3. But because we've been hyperventilating, our lung pCO2 is down to 1, so we're only going to breath out a pCO2 of 1. This gives a lower reading on the breathalyser. If you stop hyperventilating, you will no longer be breathing out CO2 faster than you are producing it - you will begin to produce it faster than you breath it out, so concentrations will rise to normal.
It is essentially the same process with alcohol. Ordinarily you will breath out x concentration of alcohol, and that will correspond closely to your blood alcohol levels, because the higher the alcohol concontration in your blood, the more rapidly alcohol enters the lungs. Hyperventilating will lower the alcohol concentration in the lungs and in the bloodstream, temporarily, and may enable you to pass a breathalyser test because you will be breathing out less alcohol.
That all make sense?
I don't recall normal partial pressures so the values I'm about to use are arbitrary.
In normal breathing, you have a pCO2 in the air of 0.5, a pCO2 in the lungs of 3 and a pCO2 in the blood of 5, and a pCO2 in the tissues of 7. So CO2 diffuses out of the tissues into the bloodstream, and out of the bloodstream into the alveoli of the lungs - there is a continuous concentration gradient, if you like. This maintains the pCO2 in the blood within normal ranges (4.5-6kPa IIRC).
The pCO2 in the lungs is dependent on how rapidly and how deeply you breath - e.g. are you completely replacing the lung air with atmospheric air? And how frequently are you doing this?. Obviously, the more quickly you breath, the more atmospheric air you will get in your lungs, and so the pCO2 in the lungs will lower towards 0.5. The same applies with taking deeper breaths. Enter hyperventilation:
In hyperventilation, you reduce the pCO2 in the lungs to 1. This increases the rate at which you clear CO2 from the blood - instead of there being a concentration gradient of 2 (pCO2 in blood = 5, pCO2 in lungs = 3), there is a concentration gradient of 4 (pCO2 in blood = 5, pCO2 in lungs = 1). The rate of CO2 clearance has doubled, and if you keep hyperventilating for 30s, the pCO2 in the blood will drop to 3, and the pCO2 in the tissues will undergo a similar drop, to 5. Basically, a new equilibrium has been set up, with the baseline CO2 level lower than the previous baseline, so CO2 concentrations throughout the body have dropped accordingly - you are breathing out CO2 faster than you are producing it.
With me so far?
Now, supposing we were breathalysing for CO2 instead of alcohol. Ordinarily, we'd breath out a pCO2 of 3. But because we've been hyperventilating, our lung pCO2 is down to 1, so we're only going to breath out a pCO2 of 1. This gives a lower reading on the breathalyser. If you stop hyperventilating, you will no longer be breathing out CO2 faster than you are producing it - you will begin to produce it faster than you breath it out, so concentrations will rise to normal.
It is essentially the same process with alcohol. Ordinarily you will breath out x concentration of alcohol, and that will correspond closely to your blood alcohol levels, because the higher the alcohol concontration in your blood, the more rapidly alcohol enters the lungs. Hyperventilating will lower the alcohol concentration in the lungs and in the bloodstream, temporarily, and may enable you to pass a breathalyser test because you will be breathing out less alcohol.
That all make sense?
Ok, I think I have you. My only issue is that the bodies response to CO2 changes is very rapid (due to rate of conversion of CO2 to bicarb being extremely quick) so changes to equilibrium are felt on the timescales which you talk about. (hence hyperventilation - which I was ok with before)
Is it known that this is the same of alcohol? Has this been studies?
Is it known that this is the same of alcohol? Has this been studies?
I'm confused - is there a question there?
A quick look on pubmed doesn't reveal anything, but I may be inept at searching. So I don't have any evidence for this being the same; it just seems logical to me that it would happen with alcohol similarly to CO2. And this theory is borne up in previous posts -
for example.