When you are arrested for a DUI, the law enforcement is evaluating your charge based on the amount of alcohol that was in your system when you were tested. It is important that you understand how alcohol interacts with your body if you want to effectively argue your case at trial. An attorney can help you to understand this chemistry in depth, but this article will provide you with some insight on the subject.
Whenever a person consumes alcohol, he or she starts building a blood-alcohol concentration. That concentration will vary depending on the amount of alcohol in the bloodstream. If alcohol is absorbed into your bloodstream, then your BAC will go up. If it dissipates from your blog stream, then it will go down. Elimination occurs when the alcohol is oxidized within your body. Most of the time alcohol can also be excreted in urine, perspiration, and breath.
Normally, a person who drinks heavily and quickly will have a higher BAC, because the alcohol will be absorbed into the bloodstream at a faster rate if the individual is drinking more. Those that consume alcohol slowly will build a BAC at a much steadier level, and may never even reach the legal limit of 0.08%. Still, this can be deceiving. There are also times that a person will slowly drink, causing the BAC to rise without even feeling the effects. In this situation, some individuals will register a high BAC even though they don't feel intoxicated.
To go even more in depth, absorption of the alcohol into the bloodstream happens when the alcohol moves through the mucous lining of the gastrointestinal tract. The rate of absorption increases as the drink moves through the tract. When a person is drinking on an empty stomach, he or she will absorb the alcohol faster, because the stomach has no other foods to compete with the alcohol. This means that a person will have a higher BAC if he or she does not eat food with the drink.
An average person will absorb about 60% of all alcohol consumed into the bloodstream within a half hour. About 90% of all alcohol will be absorbed within an hour, and all of it will be absorbed into the bloodstream within an hour and half. Your actual rate of absorption will depend on the quantity of alcohol that you drink, the concentration of the alcohol in the drink, the rate at which you drank, and the amount of diluting material that was already in your stomach.
Most of the alcohol in your body will eventually be eliminated when it is oxidized in the liver. This means that it will form water and carbon dioxide and will be exhaled. The rate of oxidation is normally the same over time but depending on your liver's capabilities it may take longer or shorter amounts of time to remove the alcohol from the system this way. People who drink alcohol habitually often burn it off faster than casual drinkers do. The 5% to 10% that is not converted in the liver is normally eliminated by perspiration, urine, or breath.
You may want to get an expert witness who understands the effect of alcohol on the body to attend your trial and testify on your behalf. He or she may be able to explain that you were not truly intoxicated, or develop another affective argument that could help you in your case. Hire a local DUI attorney as well to advocate for you in court and assist you in arguing for your innocence.