Liquor chocolates can result in very high alcohol readings on police breath tests |
With Christmas nearly upon us the UK’s consumption of
tiny chocolates filled with one type of booze or another is about to
skyrocket. As a specialist drink driving solicitor, one question I have been
asked a few times over the years by friends and family is whether it is
possible to eat so many liquor chocolates that you exceed the drink driving
limit?
In England and Wales, the drink driving limit is 35 mg of
alcohol per 100 ml of breath. The number
of drinks it takes to reach the drink driving limit depends on how strong the
drink it, how heavy you are, how tall you are and whether you are a man or a
woman.
In 1999, two researches named Hylen and Jones ran a small
experiment with three participants who had not consumed alcohol prior to the
experiment. The aim of the experiment
was to test whether the alcohol from two liquor chocolates could affect a
breath test like those used by the police.
The results showed categorically that yes liquor chocolates do have a
massive impact… but only for a very short amount of time.
One minute after eating the chocolates all three
volunteers produced extremely high readings – the highest being 87 mgs per 100
ml of breath or nearly two and a half times to the drink driving limit! At two and a half minutes the highest reading
had fallen to 24 mg per 100 ml, which is below the drink driving limit. By the time of the last test six minutes after
eating the two chocolates the highest reading produced was just 5 mg per 100
ml.
In 1984 a researcher called Pribilla decided to give five
lucky volunteers an early Christmas present – each volunteer was given one hour
to eat as many brandy chocolates as they could shovel down their gullets,
Pribilla administered a breath test 30 minutes after the last chocolate was
eaten and then proceeded to take blood samples every 30 minutes for two hours.
Pribilla failed to detect any alcohol in 3 of the
volunteers and in the other two found just a trace level of alcohol.
So, can liquor chocolates affect a breath test at the police
station? In the very short term, yes
they can have a massive effect. In the
middle to long term no they will have no impact whatsoever… except that if you
eat too much chocolate you’ll feel sick, as all five of Pribilla’s volunteers
did.
Should you find yourself accused of drink driving this Christmas you can get expert legal advice from a specialist drink driving solicitor by calling 020 8242 4440.
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