Do You Know The Alcohol Concentration in Your Blood?

Did you know that as per legal limits, one drink is equivalent to 12-ounce beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine, or one shot (1.5 ounces of hard liquor or spirits)? Your friends may have told you that you can change your BAC levels but fact is you cannot. So, if you are thinking of fooling the breath analyzer the next time you are on a drinking spree, think again. Here are some ways to know what the BAC levels in your blood are really like.

Man or woman: it affects your BAC

Men have higher concentrations of an enzyme known as dehydrogenase. This enables their bodies to eliminate alcohol much faster than women. The water content in a man’s body is also much higher compared to women and hence the alcohol elimination is accelerated because of this. For a woman of the same weight as a man, it would take much longer to eliminate the same amount of alcohol. While a man would take close to an hour to eliminate an ounce of a drink, a woman’s body would take much longer to process the alcohol. Sounds unfair but it’s a fact! So, the next time you think that your BAC levels can be tampered with, know that this is not true. It is a shocking fact but statistics reveal that one out of every ten Americans are going to be directly or indirectly involved in a drunken driving accident.

How many drinks to be impaired?

In order to effectively determine the levels of BAC in your blood, you will first need to know your body weight. For example, if you are a 100 pounds in weight, one and a half drinks in an hour would lead to what is known as impairment or a BAC of 0.04. If you were to consume two drinks in an hour, it would result in a “drunk” state, which refers to a BAC of 0.08. If you were weighing 180 pounds, you would need more drinks to bring up your BAC levels but that is no reason to start downing the liquor! For a body weight of 180 pounds, it would take close to 2.5 drinks in an hour to reach a BAC level of 0.04 while it would take around 5 drinks in the hour to reach BAC levels of 0.08.

BAC levels and what they mean

One of the first areas of your body that gets affected by alcohol consumption is the brain. Since alcohol is absorbed rapidly into the bloodstream it enters the brain first which contains the largest supply of blood. BAC in expanded form means Blood Alcohol Concentration and refers to the amount of alcohol that your blood contains. Factors impacting BAC include one’s gender (as mentioned above), number of drinks consumed, weight etc.

Remember, that if an officer has used a breathanalyzer and found a BAC of 0.08 or more, you would need to comply with a chemical test. If you refuse this, your license can be taken away and you can even be served by a revocation or suspension.