Breath Test Defense

If you have recently been arrested for driving under the influence, you may feel that all hope is lost. This is not the case. There are many defense tactics that your attorney can use to have these serious charges against you dropped.

One of the most common defenses that an attorney will use is the breath test defense. Most people seem to think that breath testing is an accurate way to determine a person’s blood alcohol content (BAC) level. However, this belief is untrue. There are often errors with breath testing, which can show false readings that are significantly higher than the driver’s true BAC. The variables that can lead to these errors are not taken into account by the breath testing device.

One problem with the breath machine is that it assumes that there is a direct relationship between the amount of alcohol in a driver’s air sample and the amount of alcohol in the driver’s blood. In the United States, this standard ratio is 2100 to 1, which means that the amount of alcohol in one milliliter of blood is 2100 times greater than the amount of alcohol found in a cubic centimeter of an air sample. Because of this, all breath machines are calibrated based on this 2100 to 1 assumption. However, not all people have this breath to blood ratio. If a driver has a ratio lower than this, his or her breath test result will be artificially high.

There are several health-related factors that can affect a breath test. If you have gastric reflux, a hiatal hernia, or intestinal problems, you may not be a good candidate for breath testing, as these conditions may cause errors on the test. Dental and respiratory conditions also adversely affect the results.

Vomiting or belching before a test will inflate the test results.

The temperature of the driver’s breath sample is extremely important. If the temperature is 1 degree above 34 C, this can inflate the driver’s BAC reading by as much as 7 percent.

Remember those high protein diets? If you have been on a diet like that and began eating carbs, it triggers alcohol production when the ketones are converted into isopropyl alcohol. This will affect your breath test results.

If you believe that any of these factors may have lead to an inflated breath test result, you should immediately contact DUI defense attorney.

States/Abbreviations
AK	Alaska	LA	Louisiana	OH	Ohio
AL	Alabama	MA	Massachusetts	OK	Oklahoma
AR	Arkansas	MD	Maryland	OR	Oregon
AZ	Arizona	ME	Maine	PA	Pennsylvania
CA	California	MI	Michigan	RI	Rhode Island
CO	Colorado	MN	Minnesota	SC	South Carolina
CT	Connecticut	MO	Missouri	SD	South Dakota
DE	Delaware	MS	Mississippi	TN	Tennessee
FL	Florida	MT	Montana	TX	Texas
GA	Georgia	NC	North Carolina	UT	Utah
HI	Hawaii	ND	North Dakota	VT	Vermont
IA	Iowa	NE	Nebraska	VA	Virginia
ID	Idaho	NH	New Hampshire	WA	Washington State
IL	Illinois	NJ	New Jersey	WI	Wisconsin
IN	Indiana	NM	New Mexico	WV	West Virginia
KS	Kansas	NV	Nevada	WY	Wyoming
KY	Kentucky	NY	New York	DC	Washington DC