{"id":1607,"date":"2012-08-20T18:04:17","date_gmt":"2012-08-21T00:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alcoholmonitoring.com\/blog\/?p=1607"},"modified":"2016-02-18T18:57:19","modified_gmt":"2016-02-18T18:57:19","slug":"can-breath-spray-send-you-to-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/can-breath-spray-send-you-to-jail\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Breath Spray Send You to Jail?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month CNN ran a story from<\/a> their affiliate, WSB, in Atlanta, about the Breathalyzer Equalizer.<\/a> The product claims to \u201chelp\u201d people taking a breath test by eliminating \u201cmouth alcohol\u201d that could create a \u201cfalse positive\u201d on a breath test.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of quotation marks in that sentence.<\/p>\n

Some background<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, mouth alcohol is something that can linger in the mouth for several minutes, caused by the consumption or use of a product with high alcohol content (cough syrup, mouthwash, breath spray). You can get positive results on a breath test without having actually swallowed a product with alcohol and without being intoxicated. The results are coming from the mouth, not via the lungs (and thus metabolism of the alcohol in the body).<\/p>\n

In 1998, a peer-reviewed study by Barry Logan and Sandra DeStefano took the question a step further to determine if the consumption of some foods or beverages could cause \u201cmouth alcohol,\u201d and hence false positive readings on breath tests. The study concluded that some soft drinks and even leavened breads have enough alcohol to cause these results if the test was taken immediately following ingestion, or while the food was still in the mouth, albeit at very low levels. The highest test result, from someone with food in their mouth while testing, was a .046 BAC, below even the Drinking While Ability Impaired limit of .05 BAC that some states employ.<\/p>\n

The study concluded that when a 15-minute deprivation period is observed (where someone is observed to ensure no use of an alcohol-containing product and that nothing has been consumed), the risk of mouth alcohol reading positive on breath tests was reduced to zero.<\/p>\n

Zero.<\/p>\n

The product in this story out of Atlanta\u00a0portrays itself as serving justice by preventing mouth alcohol false positives. The piece includes an interview with the director of Georgia\u2019s chapter<\/a> of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)<\/a>, who did a great job of pointing out that the way the product is marketed\u2014complete with a martini glass in the logo\u2014will encourage people to think they can drink, drive, then utilize the product to avoid blowing positive on a breath test. In the process they very well may kill or injure someone in an alcohol-related traffic fatality.<\/p>\n

We absolutely agree. The implication from this product is that it sobers you up. Not that it just clears your mouth of the dreaded breath spray. (And who would use breath spray when being pulled over by a police officer? Likely someone who has been drinking.)<\/p>\n

We see many news stories throughout the year where reporters use mouthwash and then show staggering results on breath tests conducted immediately after gargling, implying there are enormous risks involved in these roadside sobriety tests. These stories almost always fail to mention that:<\/p>\n