Ok, there are many myths surrounding alcohol and how it absorbs etc, this is often what lands people in the legal poo poo.
Firstly, people often don't know that there is an alcohol bell curve. When you have a drink it is slowly absorbed into your blood stream via your small intestine. It takes, on average, 1hr, for the human body to process 1 standard drink (this doesn't differ much from an alcoholic to someone who is having their first drink) to be processed the alcohol has to enter your blood stream and then get filtered out. As a result your blood alcohol level will increase gradually for a period of time before it starts to gradually decrease as your liver filters the blood. If you have 10 drinks you shouldn't drive for at least 10hrs to allow for your body to process it. This is where people get caught out the next day.
Biggest myth, people who drink more process it quicker. Wrong! They process it just as fast as a 1 drink wonder but they have a greater tolerance for it so they don't appear as drunk as the one drink wonder. If breath tested they would still blow a similar reading. On an episode of RBT a guy was stopped the evening after a big session and after a day on the tools and driving around he blew 0.156, three times the limit, but unlike most of us would have been at that level, he was coherent, not slurring speech and aside from the small of grog appeared sober.
If you get breath tested within 10-15mins of drinking an alcoholic drink your reading will be much higher because of the presence of mouth alcohol. After that the alcohol reading is obtained by testing the air from your lungs as the air is laced with the alcohol from your blood. The reason why you have to blow in the tube for so long is because the machine waits a few seconds for the air from your mouth and throat to be expelled and the air from your lungs is finally passing the sensor.
The way most people get caught out is by not keeping track of their drinks. It is important to know what '1 standard drink' is. If you have two house wines at 150ml then you have had 3 standard drinks not 2 because a standard drink of wine is 100ml. A middy of full strength beer or a schooner of light beer is one standard drink. Some premixed cans are nearly 3 standard drinks so a six pack isn't 6 drinks it's close to 18, there's a big difference between 6hrs before driving and 18hrs. You can go out for dinner and enjoy a glass of wine or beer etc you just need to know what's in your drink and how much you've had, and if you aren't sure. Get a cab!!!
Another myth is mouth wash, unless you drink it it will only provide a positive reading for the time there is residual mouth was in your mouth.
Other things giving you a positive reading is another. Nothing other than alcohol will give you a reading, cherry ripes, Panadol and coke etc etc it's all hogs wash and isn't true.
Alcohol absorbtion can be quicker if you haven't eaten and will hit you harder, alcohol with bubbles is absorbed quicker because the bubble aggravate the sphincter muscle between your stomach and intestine which means it enters your intestine quicker.
To stay below the limit either don't drink at all or stick to one standard drink per hour and eat before or during consumption. Stop drinking 30-60mins before you leave the venue to ensure you don't have mouth alcohol and your body has processed your last drink.
