How accurate is the testing of Breath and Blood in DUI cases? We know and hear a lot about the “margin of error” in the testing methods used to determine one’s blood or breath alcohol level. According to most credible forensic toxicologists, the margin of error for blood testing (drawing blood) is up to 10%. The breath testing of a person increases the margin of error to 20%.

There are a number of different Blood Alcohol Calculators that can be found to help determine what your BAC would be if you enter in a number of factors. Number of drinks or ounces of alcoholic drink, over how many hours, your weight, and alcohol level of the drinks, can give you a rough estimate of your BAC. These BAC Calculators don’t factor in many other variables that can effect absorption and elimination rates, thus only a rough estimate should ever be taken from the results.

One more problem in trying to calculate BAC is we often do not know the exact alcohol percentage of the drinks consumed. An example of this is that our government allows a wine maker to over or understate the alcohol level by 1%. This may not seem like a big deal, but it can be the difference between being over or under the legal limit. Here is an example, and this is only a rough calculation since we are using a BAC Calculator:

A 180 pound person drinks 20 ounces of 13% wine (4-5 half glasses) over a two hour period. Using one of many BAC Calculators the ethanol content of their blood would be 0.0783 percent. Same person and same amount of 14% wine, the BAC Calculator puts them at 0.0866 percent – OVER the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Why does the government allow this 1% tolerance? One reason is to allow wine makers to create a label before it is time to bottle the product. Alcohol levels change over time in wine making and historically it has been very expensive to send off wine samples for alcohol percent testing. My question is, with computers today, how hard is it to make a last minute change of one number on a label?

New technology exists today that may eventually change this 1% tolerance.

Pictured here is an Oenofoss machine.

Alcohol Calculator

It can measure up to seven parameters in wine, including ethanol level. Apparently all you need is one drop of wine and you can almost instantly get a result. It appears the main reason most wine makers do not have this machine on site is the cost. I’m told you can have one for around $30,000. Just like big screen TV’s the price will eventually come down and all wine makers will have similar machines.

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