Can you fool a Breathalyzer test? This question is a popular topic with urban legend philosophers. The answer in most cases is no, you cannot fool a Breathalyzer test. There are many techniques being spread around, suck on a penny, eat breath mints, eat an onion, eat garlic, even ingesting chewing tobacco has been brought up. These and many other methods have all been disproved. I will discuss later, a method that has been proven to fool a Breathalyzer. This method involves a simple variation of breathing pattern.
People have tried just about everything to fool a Breathalyzer test. I came across one case that struck me as particularly strange, and I might add desperate. In 2004 a Canadian man age 59, was pulled over for DUI (Driving Under the Influence). He was obviously driving drunk, therefore the officer took him in to the station for testing. While in the back of the cruiser the intoxicated man vomited, urinated, and defecated himself. As the officer was removing the man from the cruiser, the drunk grabbed a handful of his feces and stuffed it in his mouth, hoping it would give the Breathalyzer a false reading. That is disgusting, nonetheless it did not work.
It is amazing the lengths people will go to in order to fool a Breathalyzer. It is a fact that because of the way the Breathalyzer works, there is simply no way that ingesting anything will fool the test. The test is taken from air passing through the lungs and has nothing to do with the stomach or mouth.
A Breathalyzer is a device employed by the police to test the amount of alcohol running through the blood stream of a person suspected of Driving Under the Influence (DUI) or Driving While Intoxicated (DWI). This device measures the amount of alcohol on the suspect’s breath, which comes from inside the lungs of the suspect. The blood is carried through the lungs and with every exhale a certain, measurable, amount of alcohol is taken with the breath. This alcohol content correlates directly with the amount of alcohol in the person’s bloodstream, or their Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC), often misconstrued as Blood Alcohol Content. To learn more about how a Breathalyzer works read this article from associated content:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/25268/how_breathalyzers_work.html
You will notice that in the introduction to this article I stated that in most cases the Breathalyzer test cannot be fooled. This is because a number of studies have shown the possibility of producing a false reading on a Breathalyzer test, so in fact there is a way to fool a Breathalyzer. It is a technique of varying your breathing pattern.
In one particular study, the participants ingested moderate amounts of alcohol, and then their Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) was measured. The participants then began to vary their breathing patterns.
When they held their breath for 30 seconds before testing the content was higher by 15.7%. They then began hyperventilating for 20 seconds. This method revealed a lower BAC of 10.6%. Various other breathing techniques were studied, all techniques resulting in different measurements of Blood Alcohol Content. Hyperventilating for 20 seconds was the only technique to result in a lowered BAC. This technique of varying breathing fools the Breathalyzer because of the way the blood flows through the lungs. To learn more on this subject read this blog:
http://www.azduiatty.com/how-to-fool-the-breathalyzer.htm
An Arizona DUI and DWI lawyer runs the preceding blog. It is a useful and informative site that will help to explain the studies used to prove the Breathalyzer varied breathing technique.
So you see, it is possible to fool a Breathalyzer test. Although, it is not likely that you could get out of a DUI or DWI by utilizing this technique. Most officers would notice your varied breathing and simply ask that you stop. Then when you have stopped and rested a bit they would readminister the Breathalyzer. Your best bet of beating a DUI or DWI is simply not to drink and drive. The purpose of this article was not to assist anyone in breaking the law, it was simply written to inform the reader that sucking on pennies, and other methods used to fool a Breathalyzer are flawed. Despite the varied breathing technique the Breathalyzer is actually quite accurate.
