How to prevent the tube from showing alcohol. Myths and reality: how to fool a breathalyzer

During the last “UralWeb Check”, when a team of natural scientists selflessly tasted red wines in the fresh air, some of the team members were forced to abstain from tasting. The reason is attachment to vehicles. And since laws are above all else for us, they drank exclusively cherry juice and mineral water. U ordinary people it would all have ended there, but we had a question: how much can you drink before you can get behind the wheel?

This is how the idea of ​​our next test came up: to determine experimentally after what amount of alcohol and after what time you can get behind the wheel, and at the same time not lose your driver’s license for the next few years.

On a note:
According to the law, the maximum permissible blood alcohol content while driving vehicle is 0.3 ppm, however, to determine the degree of intoxication, traffic police officers use breathalyzers, which determine your condition by the volume of alcohol content in the exhaled air. The norm is up to 0.15 milligrams per liter of exhaled air (mg/L), however, even at a level of 0.1 mg/L you may be suspected of drunk driving and sent for a medical examination.

But just in case, we want to tell you the following:

We approached the matter thoroughly. First of all, we got hold of exactly the kind of breathalyzer that traffic police officers use. It was kindly provided to us by the Radis-S company. You can see what this device looks like in the photo. Try to remember, because the breathalyzer that the traffic cops may use to test you should look exactly like this. If you are offered to breathe somewhere else, you can safely refuse, make a fuss and threaten with complaints to the CSS.

The fact is that this device uses disposable mouthpieces (the mouthpiece must be printed in your presence) and measures environment, which completely eliminates the possibility of error or forgery. So take a look at the picture again, remember, and don’t breathe into any other devices!

We decided to test several alcoholic drinks at once to know exactly which one can sober up faster. At the same time, we checked the myth that kvass, kefir and non-alcoholic beer still provide a small alcohol content. We also tested the strength of the old story that “snacks steal the mood”: two men of the same build, weight and age drank the same amount of vodka, but one took a bite, and the other snorted it on his sleeve. What was the result - read on.

Our members:
— Vodka (tested in pure form and with a snack) (70 grams each)
— fortified wine — 1 glass
– red wine (semi-sweet) – 1 glass
– white wine (semi-sweet) – 1 glass
— champagne — 1 glass
— beer (alc. vol. 4.8%) — 1 can
– non-alcoholic beer – 1 bottle 0.33
— kvass — 0.5 liters
- kefir - 0.5 liters

We did not include other strong alcoholic drinks (such as cognac, rum, whiskey and other “tequilas”) in the study, since the number of testers was much smaller than the assortment of the alcohol department of any supermarket. And, secondly, the experiment risked quickly escalating into a drinking binge.

At the very beginning of the experiment, we made a “control measurement”, which confirmed our crystal sobriety (and honesty), clinked glasses, and the experiment began.

In general, the maximum level of alcohol concentration in the blood is reached on average after 30 minutes, so if you drank while being close to home, then you still have the opportunity to quickly jump behind the wheel and rush to the parking lot. Although, of course, it is strictly not recommended to do this ().

After 20 minutes we made the first measurement: Oddly enough, but the most high level The level of alcohol found in a person who drank a can of beer was 0.234 mg/L; the second most intoxicating level was vodka without a snack - 0.215 mg/L. In both cases, the meeting with traffic police inspectors would have ended in deprivation of rights.
But vodka with snacks was among the laggards - only 0.15 mg/L. That is, other things being equal (gender, weight and age of drinkers), the one who has a snack turns out to be more sober.
As for kvass, kefir and non-alcoholic beer, they have 100% confirmed their integrity. All three people turned out to be just as sober as half an hour ago.

The next measurement was made 15 minutes later, and then the anomalies began. In particular, consumers of vodka (with and without snacks) were practically “equal in readings.” Now, for the one who drank without a snack, the degree of intoxication was 0.167 mg/L, and for the opponent who had a bite, it was 0.157 mg/L. In addition, the degree of intoxication increased among consumers of red fortified wine.

The overall result was that about an hour and a half after drinking any of the alcoholic drinks, you can, with some risk, but get behind the wheel, even after vodka. Moreover, the girl who drank a glass of white wine was already crystal sober after that same hour and a half.

Red fortified wine turned out to be the most persistent - its effect took more than three hours to neutralize. Even after three and a half hours, the blood alcohol level was 0.041 mg/L, which is enough to go for a medical examination.

The results of our research are clearly visible in this graph.

Period of complete elimination of alcohol from the body in hours

(information for men, women have a 20% longer time to remove alcohol from the body!)

Volume 100 grams Volume 300 grams Volume 500 grams

The breathalyzer readings are influenced not only by the driver’s gender, weight and lifestyle, but also by the acid balance in his body and even the mood in which he drank alcohol the day before

Many US public organizations are planning to participate in a nationwide campaign against drunk driving, which will be held from August 19 to September 11. In particular, it is planned to organize special patrols and sobriety checkpoints, especially at night. Similar efforts in the United States have helped reduce the death rate in accidents involving drunk drivers by 50% since 1980, although last years the indicator stubbornly does not decrease - every year 11 thousand people die in accidents due to alcohol, this is a third of the total number of victims on the road.

In the United States, the permissible blood alcohol concentration for an adult while driving is no more than 0.08% (corresponding to 0.8 g/l, or 0.8 ppm). For motorists under the age of 21, any level of alcohol in the blood is completely prohibited.

Many experts believe that this restriction is not strict enough, since the reaction rate drops even at half the alcohol concentration. Additionally, the ban is much stricter in other countries: 0.02% in China, 0.03% in most Indian states, and 0.05% in most European countries. In Russia, as is known, at the instigation of President Dmitry Medvedev, there is a rule of zero tolerance to the level of alcohol in the driver’s blood.

Meanwhile, as The Wall Street Journal writes, the effect of alcohol on the body is a purely individual feature and depends on a whole range of factors.
Blood alcohol levels rise faster if consumed on an empty stomach or with carbonated drinks, which irritate the stomach lining and speed up digestion. The effect of alcohol on the body and the rate of penetration into the blood even depends on genetic and racial characteristics, gender and age, state of health and nervous system.

Anyone who thinks he knows the right amount is often mistaken. “Alcohol can affect your reflexes, even if you feel normal,” says Samir Zachary, head of one of the divisions of the US National Institute on Alcoholism Research.

One of the most important factors is the rate of drinking, says Zachary. First, alcohol enters the stomach, then into the small intestine, through which it is absorbed into the blood, and then enters the liver and is broken down by its enzymes.
The liver can only break down alcohol at a rate of one drink per hour, explains Dr. Zachary.

About the benefits of snacks and leisurely drinking

Drinking one drink slowly over the course of an hour is unlikely to cause intoxication. But if you drink alcohol with higher speed, the liver can’t cope with it. Excess alcohol enters the bloodstream and all organs, including the brain.

When this happens, the impact only wears off over time. Typically, blood alcohol levels drop by 0.15% per hour in men and women, but they will rise as you continue to drink. Coffee, showering or washing with cold water can invigorate, but will not change the concentration in the blood.

When we snack, we slow down the absorption of alcohol because the stomach, having received food, “closes” to partially process it before it goes further along the digestive tract. Without this stop, alcohol enters the intestines and liver faster.

Blood alcohol levels vary depending on age, gender and weight. In the female body, where water content is typically lower, the same volume of alcohol consumed will result in a higher concentration of alcohol in the blood. Age is also important, since the liver of an older person processes alcohol more slowly. But in a young body, alcohol can cause more damage to the brain, since some of its parts are still being formed.

For those who drink a lot and regularly, the same volume of alcohol will cause less intoxication than for “newbies.” The level of alcohol in the blood will also be lower, because in people who are accustomed to strong drinks, the liver produces more special enzymes that break down alcohol.

Breathalyzers for all wallets: from 5 dollars to 2 thousand

Today on the American market there are many breathalyzers in a variety of price categories- from a $5 keychain toy to a $2,000 tabletop setup that will help you test yourself, your guests, or your teenage children for alcohol.

The principle of operation of most devices is the same: the subject, following a signal from the counter, takes a deep breath and exhales into the tube of the device. Thus, the level of alcohol in the blood is not measured directly, but indirectly through breathing. Then the device calculates the concentration in the blood from the resulting ratio and displays the value on the display.

Columnists at The Wall Street Journal tested several types and found that smaller device, the higher the readings, all other things being equal. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. They're all within a hundredth of a percentage point, whether it's the sub-30g BreakKey for $69, or the $55 AlcoHAWK, or the $249 BACtrack Select S80 Breathalyzer, which delivers readings accurate to within a thousandth of a percent—justifiable for Americans. If we're talking about about a concentration of 0.079% and it is important that the limit of 0.08% is not exceeded.

The $5 Wingman Sport Breathalyzer gave significantly higher readings than the others, for example, after one glass of wine it reported a concentration of 0.190%, when BACtrack and AlcoHAWK reported figures of about 0.04%.
Results may be distorted depending on the health status of the subject or if rinses containing alcohol are used. In these cases, false positive samples are possible.

Police breathalyzers in the US must be approved National Directorate security traffic(NHTSA), and consumer models receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Different things happen in our lives, so it’s not surprising that some car enthusiasts are wondering how to fool a breathalyzer? Although modern devices for determining the level of alcohol in the blood, which are, in fact, electrochemical analyzers, are not a traffic police inspector, which can sometimes be done.

How to fool a breathalyzer - folk methods and beliefs

I repeat once again: modern devices for determining the level of alcohol in the blood are electrochemical analyzers, soulless machines with a display showing dry numbers of the degree of intoxication. Intoxication from dry wine and cognac, whiskey and beer, Russian vodka or moonshine.

And even from various other alcohol-containing liquids - they also drink Lavender lotion with Verbena cologne, as Venedikt Erofeev wrote in Moscow-Petushki. True, fans of these drinks usually do not drive, but travel in the subway, buses or minibuses.

But how can you fool a breathalyzer if you drank yesterday and today you have to drive? The main thing is not to give up and not try to get a hangover in the morning. Fifty grams of vodka or a bottle of 0.33 beer can have a beneficial (albeit short-term) effect on your well-being - but a machine with a mouthpiece is guaranteed to show, even after two or three hours, not the permitted 0.15 milligrams of alcohol per liter of exhaled air, but more.

How much more depends on the individual characteristics of the body. But if the evening libation was plentiful and in the morning you are still in a borderline state, and you start driving literally in an hour? In principle, it’s worth trying to take various anti-hangover remedies (“Alka-Seltzer” has already become a household word), not only drink a couple of cups of coffee, but also chew coffee beans, freshen your breath with super-powerful mint chewing gum- By at least If the breath is fresh, the state traffic inspector may not suspect anything.

But how can you fool a breathalyzer if you still have to breathe into the device? The only thing is that you can slightly reduce your alcohol level by hyperventilating your lungs. A series of very deep breaths and exhalations will bring the indicators back to normal if they were initially at the borderline level.

If yesterday evening passed under the motto “beer and meat”, “beer and fish” or “beer and something else”, and the number of glasses did not exceed five or six - consider yourself lucky. Unless, of course, your metabolism is low and your body has the “gift” of retaining alcohol.

Is it possible to fool a breathalyzer using pharmacology?

Unfortunately, modern pharmacology has not yet gone so far as to take one magic pill after a friendly party - and that’s it, just like a cucumber. Or in the morning I swallowed a pill, washed it down with mineral water - and was one hundred percent ready for a difficult twelve-hour taxiing.

Today, our medicine can only offer a dribble - an IV, glucose, and withdrawal symptoms are gone. But is it possible to fool the breathalyzer by breathing into the mouthpiece? In fact, everything is also individual and depends on the amount you drink and the degree of metabolism.

Just a dozen years ago the question “how to fool a breathalyzer?” had a very simple answer - you could blow past it and thereby disorient the device. But current devices have deprived heavy drinkers of this opportunity. Now, to carry out the test, the device requires a certain volume of air from the lungs.

And until the device responds sound signal- you can breathe as you like, even past the mouthpiece (by the way, it should be disposable and printed directly during the test procedure - this is very important!) - but to no avail.

How to fool a breathalyzer - simple ways

To the question “How to fool a breathalyzer?” The best answer can be given by masters of martial arts, who from generation to generation talk about one great master who did not lose a single fight and won all his fights - because he prevented them in advance!

Is it possible to fool the breathalyzer and not give the “seller of striped sticks” any chance of a large fine, not to mention the deprivation of driving privileges? Of course you can! If you do not drink alcohol before the trip (non-alcoholic beer and kefir will not affect the indicators, a liter of kvass will, but ten minutes will be enough for the indicators to return to normal).

But if you did drink yesterday - and you drank a lot, the best and the only way, how to fool a breathalyzer - do not drive. Just call a taxi or use public transport. Believe me, it’s cheaper and more reliable.

Take it for yourself and tell your friends!

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Popular wisdom says that there are several 100% ways to fool a breathalyzer. Is this true or another myth? We decided to check it out.

Of course, we are not talking about getting drunk on vodka to the point of “not standing” and at the same time naively believing that you can deceive someone. The task is to check the possibility of drinking a couple of glasses of champagne (standard practice to celebrate a successful deal with a business partner) and get behind the wheel, without fear of losing your driver's license.

There are rumors that the breathalyzer can be fooled by: chewing gum, chocolate, seeds, activated carbon, cigarettes, coffee, cinnamon, bay leaf, nutmeg, garlic or Anti-policeman. Is it so?

Important
According to current regulations, the concentration of alcohol in exhaled air is in milligrams per liter. If there is alcohol (this is approximately the same 0.3 ppm) - this is deprivation. Anything less is not considered a violation.

What do the experts say?
Alcohol enters the air a person exhales from the lungs. And it, in turn, gets into the lungs from the blood. Accordingly, the more alcohol in the blood, the more of it in the exhaled air. That is, it doesn’t matter whether you drank the traditional way or took an alcohol enema, you will have the same aroma. Experts say that there are no products that can mask alcohol.

But maybe the doctors are not telling the truth?

Let's start the experiment
After drinking three glasses of champagne, the subjects (two young men and a girl) began to blow into a tube. Drinking had different effects on people.

If the first participant quickly got drunk and gave an alcohol concentration in the exhaled air of 0.26 mg/l, then the other two showed only 0.17 mg/l. In all three cases it is deprivation. This means the experiment can begin.

Tests
The subjects ate chocolate, cracked sunflower seeds, gnawed coffee beans, smeared garlic on their teeth, smoked, and drank a weak solution. citric acid, consumed cinnamon and nutmeg, swallowed activated carbon and vegetable oil, and chewed gum. And... no effect. Even the anti-policeman didn't help. It really completely removed the smell of alcohol, but the breathalyzer did not deceive. The device showed the same values.

The only effective trick to fool the breathalyzer was the method of hyperventilation. This is when the subject takes several deep breaths and sharp exhalations in a row, and then blows into a tube. The result is -0.04 mg/l (was 0.26, now 0.22).

Success? No. The very next blowing shows the same 0.26 mg/l.

That is, you can fool the breathalyzer for a short time. This the method will work, if you have evidence of what is called on the verge of deprivation. Therefore, the test subject, whose readings (0.17 mg/ml) slightly exceeded the permissible limit, decided not to risk it and went home that day by taxi.

Conclusion: it was not possible to fool the alcoholic beverage, so no “one bottle” of beer. You shouldn't drink and drive at all.

For reference: Driving while intoxicated will cost 30 thousand rubles and two years on foot. Refusal to undergo an examination is equivalent to automatic deprivation of rights.

(a story about how you can reduce the readings of a breathalyzer using their methodological errors and more)

Here we will mainly talk only about breathalyzers that use an indirect method of measuring blood alcohol levels. All devices that measure the level of alcohol in the blood by the content of alcohol vapor in the exhaled air are such. The operating principle of such devices is based on the afterburning of volatile hydrocarbons contained in exhaled air on a measuring plate. I am not aware of any other methods that act selectively on alcohol vapor. If there are devices that operate selectively, based on the principles of spectral or chromatographic analysis, then they should cost so much that they simply will not be given to a traffic cop.

Like all indirect measurement methods, this method has many factors influencing the measurement results. Much more than with direct measurements, and it is impossible to exclude the influence of these factors on the measurement results using an instrumental method.

If the influence of factors cannot be excluded, is it possible to influence the direction of their action? The answer here is not clear. There are factors that can be influenced in a targeted manner. Others cannot be influenced by any actions in a certain direction. Their changes are chaotic. The first includes the process of preparing a measuring sample - exhaled air. And the other group is changes in results depending on the parameters of the impact of the measuring sample on the sensitive element.

For specific breathalyzers, of course, it is possible to determine the direction of influence, at least of a change in exhalation rate, on the measurement results. But try, through repeated measurements, to determine the degree and direction of the influence of this parameter for all existing devices. Agree, with such determination, it is easier to quit drinking completely. Yes, and errors of this type are rather instrumental, and they can easily be minimized in the following design of the device.

But the process of preparing a measuring sample—exhaled air—depends entirely on us. And a lot depends on how we prepare. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), not all. So, if you really have about 0.5 ppm of alcohol in your blood, then it is unlikely that you will be able to blow on a breathalyzer with a zero result. But a more or less trained person can reduce the readings of a breathalyzer a couple of times. And it is quite possible to “reset” the breathalyzer readings when the blood alcohol level is up to 0.2 ppm.

So, specific ways influencing the breathalyzer readings by preliminary preparation to the measured exhalation. Most effective method reducing the breathalyzer readings is pre-ventilation. You need to take a deep breath and take a deep breath several times. Moreover, to exhale until the last remnants of air in the lungs (literally, of course, this will not work), the inhalation must be done quickly and intensely. After a short, intense breath, you need to quickly blow into the breathalyzer. During "purging" it is necessary to create excess pressure in the lungs in some way. To do this, you can blow through a narrow slit between the palate and the tongue. Another way is to narrow the larynx, for which you blow as if in a “silent scream”.

To ensure that the latter does not look unnatural, and that your “bulging” eyes do not frighten the police, you need to practice this in front of a mirror. And of course, do not overdo it during measurements. Otherwise, your inappropriate behavior will be grounds for sending you for a medical examination, even “without purging.” And alcohol is always present in a person’s blood! In general, I have great doubts about attempts to call a person drunk who drank kvass before a trip. But I know for sure that most people are not capable of adequate behavior “sober.” As they say, “just for the smell.” Damn, they have enough as is. Apparently, the author of the “0 ppm” law belongs to this category.

The other side also follows from these same preparation requirements. If you got up in the morning and want to test your breath “with passion” on a personal breathalyzer, you can fulfill all these requirements exactly the opposite. That is, you take a single deep breath. After this, hold your breath as much as possible and breathe only with “upper” breathing for a while. And immediately before the measurement, you exhale the air that enters the lungs during “upper” breathing with a short exhalation. Next, blow into the breathalyzer.

And don’t be surprised by the readings between the first and second methods of exhalation for measurement. A difference of up to three to five times is normal. These are methodological errors inherent in the very principle of measurement. They can only be reduced through preliminary training of the subject. They cannot be completely excluded. This method of measurement is the basis for depriving you of your rights in court!
To talk about a decrease in reaction from performing “your duties” in this part with one or two doses of alcohol is ridiculous even for medical workers. On the contrary, medicine believes that, up to a certain level, alcohol consumption causes an increase in reaction. That is why, in many countries there is an established barrier, only exceeding which causes legal consequences. In the USA, this norm is 0.8 ppm (about 1 liter of light beer). In Europe, within 0.2-0.5 ppm.

It's not even about the volume of alcohol in the blood, but more about its destructive power on the body when consumed excessively. And 0.8 residual after three to four ppm is a state of human incapacity due to health reasons. And 0.8 from below, in the process of intoxication, this is the very beginning when you feel slightly intoxicated. If you stop there, after 4-6 hours it will be difficult to find traces of alcohol in your body. This is all, of course, taking into account the characteristics of a particular organism.

But anyway, The best way protection from accidental tests on a breathalyzer, if you are a car enthusiast, this means complete abstinence from drinking alcohol. But even in this case, we cannot consider ourselves completely protected from His Majesty’s chance. Indeed, in most cases, drinking alcohol is not the most pleasant “duty on occasion,” of which, unfortunately, there are too many in Russia.
So many of us, for health reasons, are forced to use alcohol-based infusions. After getting such an infusion into your mouth, “nightmarish” breathalyzer readings are guaranteed. So, an infusion solution for mouth rinsing, 2-3 teaspoons of “Rotokan” (about 7-8% mixture) per glass of water, immediately after rinsing gives approximately 1.5 ppm. And if this solution is swallowed as doctors recommend, then its background level of up to 0.3 ppm will last for about 2 hours. This is also true if you are moving intensely.

And so, heavy traffic. It can cause an acceleration of processes in the body and reduce the level of alcohol in the blood faster than what happens during sleep or at rest. In addition to accelerating metabolic processes, intense movement also causes increased breathing. And this is the first way to reduce the level of alcohol in exhaled air. In addition, increasing blood oxygen levels is also considered one of the ways to speed up the reduction of blood alcohol levels. This is the basis for the method of removing “fat-bellied” people from binge drinking - the hyperbaric chamber. Increased pressure is created in the chamber and the oxygen content increases. It is believed that this process can speed up the sobering up process many times over.

Well, if you, by chance, did not find yourself in the ranks of the “moneybags”, for procedures analogous to this process you need to be in good health. To increase the level of oxygen in the blood and speed up metabolic processes, you will have to use natural ways. Physical exercise. They can speed up metabolism many times over, depending on their intensity. But this will be a blow to the body, already weakened by the influence of alcohol. It’s up to you to decide whether you will abuse your own body or whether the trip is not so important to you. And in general, is it worth drinking if you only have enough health left to smoke a couple of times?

In order to speed up the removal of alcohol residues from the body, you need to cyclically load the body with loads leading to rapid breathing. This could be: running 100 meters, jumping rope exercises, push-ups, squats and others. Everyone will choose their own “favorite” hangover sport. The harm caused to the body has already been mentioned above. Such procedures can speed up the process of removing alcohol residues from the body significantly! Just don't try to do this when you're still drunk and actually have more than 0.6-0.8 ppm in your blood. You will certainly speed up the process of breaking down alcohol in your body. But to cleanse your body completely, you may have to run around Earth repeatedly.

Then we can talk painfully and for a long time about the influence of organizing the drinking process. About the influence of snacks and drinks on the rate of absorption and breakdown of alcohol by the body. But all these factors are very individual in numbers. Although, of course, the direction of action of all these organizational measures is clear. Proper organization The drinking process itself can reduce the time it takes to break down alcohol significantly. If the time before the trip is more than 12 hours, you can most likely afford a glass of beer or a glass of dry wine. Vodka is also well removed from the body and no more than 100-150 grams will most likely not hurt. But, as already mentioned, this very much depends on the individual properties of the body, and I have seen people who go crazy for 16-20 hours from a glass of vodka.

That’s why I repeat all this once again. Most effective method The only way to prevent a breathalyzer test is if you need to drive in the morning and in the evening (12 hours before the trip) do not allow yourself to drink in any form. If you breastfed and were seriously drunk, then you need to refrain from traveling for at least 36 hours in complete “dry” mode. But even Allah himself will not give you a complete guarantee. Since the wording of the law is exactly “0 ppm”, and light hydrocarbons always exist in the air we exhale! And the existing attempt to add at least a little logic to the idiotic law, calling the threshold 0.049 ppm and linking this with the error of the device, is in no way enshrined in the law itself. Therefore, in court, you can only count on anything if you can prove with documentation or with the help of disinterested witnesses that you have not drunk alcohol at all for many years.