Can Anything Affect the DUI Breath Testing Machine?
Yes, and unfortunately for you, it affects it in the wrong direction. Because we are measuring very small amounts of alcohol (we’re talking hundredths of a percent here people) diluted in a very great amount of blood, any pure alcohol that gets blown into the machine will inflate the reading astronomically. But how would pure alcohol get into the machine while you are blowing into it? The answer is mouth alcohol. When you drink the vast majority of the beverage goes to your stomach, sits there for a while depending upon how much you ate, and then works its way through your small intestine. Lining the walls of your small intestine are structures called villi which absorb nutrients from food and alcohol from your beverage of choice. That alcohol then gets diluted into your bloodstream and goes throughout your body, with some of it hitting your brain and affecting your coordination and response times. But there is a small amount of alcohol in your mouth which does not get diluted with any
