Jeff Kennett has come under fire for proclaiming the merits of Mints as a way to sober up after a drink or three too many. Certainly there is no way to reduce blood alcohol by mints or other simple strategies, but you can reduce the risk of a false high reading by cleaning residual alcohol out of your mouth. This came to notice when someone was busted after using an alcohol-based mouthwash. They were clean on the blood test and the breath test was a false positive.
Wik explains that the breath test is calibrated on the assumption that the air that you breath out for the nice policeman (sorry, the police officer) has come straight from your lungs and it is designed to give an indication of the alcoho level in the blood that passed through the lungs. However the expelled air also travels through your throat and mouth, so if you have recently had a swig of your favorite poison it can inflate the reading.
The problem with mouth alcohol being analyzed by the breathalyzer is that it was not absorbed through the stomach and intestines and passed through the blood to the lungs. In other words, the machine’s computer is mistakenly applying the partition ratio (see above) and multiplying the result. Consequently, a very tiny amount of alcohol from the mouth, throat or stomach can have a significant impact on the breath-alcohol reading.
Also known to produce false results due to residual alcohol in the mouth is passionate kissing with an intoxicated person. Recent use of mouthwash or breath freshener—possibly to disguise the smell of alcohol when being pulled over by police—contain fairly high levels of alcohol.
When they had a breathalyser in the bar at Uni, people used to compete to blow the highest score. Generally you needed to take a shot of spirits, hold it in your mouth and let it trickle down your throat, moments before blowing. Being plastered beforehand didn’t hurt either. Eventually the killjoy sensible drinking movement had it pulled out to put an end to this kind of thing.
Tim Quilty
18 Nov 10 at 11:39 pm
At last some useful information on big C
rodney
19 Nov 10 at 9:04 am
Sorry Rafe, I enjoyed your post but it is already obsolescent. All you need is a burqa.( See Tim Blair.)
I look foreward to the when caring publicans offer a breathaliser and burqa service to the convivial motorist.
Rodney
19 Nov 10 at 10:58 am
The Mythbusters covered this, and I think the experimental methodology (get hammered, try various ‘remedies’) was the best time they’ve had on the show.
Jarrah
19 Nov 10 at 11:51 am