Citation

Schoknecht G. Blutalkohol 2002; 39(5): 308-317.

Affiliation

14167 Berlin, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, International Committee on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety and Bund gegen Alkohol und Drogen im Straßenverkehr, Publisher Steintor Verlag)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The comparison of breath and blood alcohol concentrations obtained by routine police checks is inevitably influenced by the time lag between the time of breath measurement and the time of blood sampling. A statistical analysis of the ratio BrAC(middle dot)2.1/BAC in mg/l/(per mille) was carried out based on 1 166 pairs of breath and blood alcohol values measured within a time span of less than (plus or minus)45 minutes. The probability distribution of the ratios with a time difference of 0 to + 45 minutes corresponds to the distribution in line with the expert assessment of the Federal Health Office of 1992. Proposals for legal limits of breath alcohol concentrations were derived from these. For forensic purposes the distribution of the time lag zero is particularly important. It is possible to draw a conclusion on the hypothetical distribution of simultaneously measured BAC values for a given BrAC. It becomes apparent that with the legal BrAC limit within the offence legislation (0.25mg/l) all BAC values exceed 0.45(per mille). For the proposed limit value within the crime legislation (0.55 mg/l) all BAC values exceed 1.0(per mille).