By Okorie Okorocha
Nationally Board Certified Criminal Trial Lawyer
*Only California State Bar Approved National Criminal Trial Board DUI Breathalyzers have little scientific validity
Alcohol Breath Tests (“ABT’s”) have been in use for over 50 years without a clear understanding by the general public of the scientifically flawed theories that they are based on. At the advent of the use of breathalyzers, or ABTs, the same flawed and invalid theories are still assumed to be true, despite ample evidence to the contrary by the world’s leading authorities such has Michael P. Hlastala, Ph.D., Kurt Dubowski, Ph.D., and A.W. Jones, Ph.D., among others.
DUI Breathalyzers do not measure air that produces a valid blood alcohol result.
The Lung Volume problem
The ABTs assume that this air is always measured by the breathalyzer after an individual expels 1.5 Liters of air. This is ridiculous for several reasons. For starters, lung volume varies by age, size and gender. Women who tend to be smaller have smaller lungs. A 20 year old male in perfect health who is 6 feet and four inches tall may have a lung volume of 6 Liters. A 60 year old female who is 5 feet and 2 inches tall may have a lung volume as low as 1.5 Liters. She may have even less volume if she has lung disease or other respiratory conditions that increase in frequency with the age of the population.
DUI Breathalyzer Airway Sample Contamination
A second flaw in the “scientific” theory behind breathalyzers is a complete and utter disregard for the fact that the air tested has to pass through all the bronchial tubes and the airways before reaching the mouth and being expelled. The bronchial tubes and airways have a mixture of water and mucus on their walls. Therefore, when one drinks alcohol and expels alcohol through their breath, alcohol is deposited on the walls of their airways. When you blow into the breathalyzer, the Law Enforcement Officer has you take a deep breath which forces all the alcohol on the walls of your bronchial tubes and airways out with your breath sample being tested. This adds alcohol to your sample giving you a higher and inaccurate BAC result which is drastic, and can be used to convict an innocent person.
The Cigar Smoker Example
Furthermore, the bronchial tubes and airways have blood vessels. So, just as when a cigar smoker feels the nicotine absorbed even though he does not inhale because of the blood vessels and gas exchange therewith, a person taking a breathalyzer expels air that exchanges with the blood in the bronchial tubes and airways and can alter the blood alcohol level and create evidence of guilt in an innocent person.
Partition Ratio causes inaccuracies in Breathalyzer Results
The partition ratio is the distribution of equal amounts of alcohol between blood and air, and is dependent upon temperature, and is known as the BAC divided by the “blood-breath” ratio between BAC and BrAC. This ratio has been standardized with an average of 2,100. However, a variability of up to 40% demonstrated valid concern where those ABT readings are close to the legal limit and can determine whether an arrest and conviction may be valid or not.
The current scientific data available displays the flaws in the Junk Science of Breathalyzers
Newer data over the past 30 years indicates that the previously accepted model for alcohol exchange has inconsistencies with the idea that that BrAC is equivalent to alveolar concentration.
