Factors That Can Affect A Breathalyzer’s Accuracy

We just posted a new article in our DWI section that talks about factors that can affect a breathalyzer’s ability to accurately determine your BAC (Blood Alcohol Content). Breathalyzers have been in use for decades but there is a false assumption regarding their accuracy because as common citizens we trust that if something is used as a tool for law enforcement then it must be reliable.

However there are a number of factors that can affect the output of a breath testing machine and we want to highlight some of the ones that we discuss in the article.

First before we do that, let’s talk about some common suggestions people have for “beating” breathalyzers. The internet is full of supposed secrets for beating the test and getting out of a DWI but when you have your future on the line, are you going to trust science or an anonymous person on the internet? Using mints (including breath strips, sprays and chewable mints like tic-tacs), mouthwash, sucking on a penny, eating an onion and putting your tongue on a battery are not going to change the results.

However some factors you may not even know about can cause a significant disruptions in how your BAC is reported:

- The machine’s calibration (see our earlier post about HPD’s DWI task force problems)
- Interfering compounds like acetone found in very high concentrations in diabetics and dieters
- Acid reflux disease and permeation of ethanol from the stomach into the esophagus
- The testing phase
- Naturally higher or lower than average partition ratios (breathalyzers measure based on a standard breath to alcohol ratio)

Learn more about all of these factors by reading our new breathalyzer page.