Factors That Can Affect Your Blood Alcohol Level

Anniversaries, holiday parties, business dinners, and weekend neighborhood barbecues are just a few occasions when you may enjoy an alcoholic beverage or two. Sometimes, you may choose to have more than one or two. With each drink, your intoxication level rises slightly. A single drink can tip you from safe to unsafe, with the potential to be charged with driving while intoxicated (DWI) or driving under the influence (DUI) charge if you choose to drive. While most people are familiar with breathalyzer tests and know the number at which that test can result in being charged, you may not fully understand exactly what blood alcohol level is, how it affects your ability to drive, and what factors affect the level itself. If you are facing a DWI charge and would like to learn more about how your blood alcohol levels contributed to that charge as well as what your defense options may be, contact the Law Office of Benjamin Greenwald by calling (845) 567-4820. We may be able to review your case, find flaws in the testing, and help you build a strong defense against the charge. 

What Is Blood Alcohol Level?

Blood alcohol level, also known as blood alcohol content (BAC), is the amount of alcohol in someone’s blood, according to the Cleveland Clinic. This is generally measured in grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood, which is then converted to a percentage. This percentage is what is used to determine whether someone is legally presumed to be intoxicated while driving, but it is possible for individuals to be impaired even before reaching the legal limit. 

Ethyl alcohol or ethanol found in beer, wine, malt liquor, and liquor is rapidly absorbed by the stomach and then the small intestines, where it then quickly enters the bloodstream. The liver then metabolizes the alcohol to filter it out of blood, which is how someone becomes sober again. If the individual drinks faster than the liver can process the alcohol, their blood alcohol level increases and they may feel drunk or intoxicated. However, not everyone is affected the same way or feels the same effects, therefore individuals should understand how it affects them personally so that they can make appropriate choices based on their response to alcohol, rather than making choices based on descriptions of what they “may” or “should” feel. 

How Quickly Does the Liver Process Alcohol?

The liver can generally process one alcoholic drink per hour for the average person. Drinks are typically defined as one beer, one mixed drink, one glass of wine, one glass of malt liquor, and one small glass of liquor. Generally, these drink sizes are a 12 ounce beer or mixed drink, a five ounce glass of wine, an eight or nine ounce container of malt liquor, or one and a half ounces of liquor (a shot). However, it is important to note that different beers, wines, and liquors may have different percentages of alcohol. Homemade alcoholic beverages, such as homebrewed beer or moonshine, may have more or less alcohol as well. 

Because the liver can process one drink per hour, the longer it has been since their last drink, the lower their BAC will be. When individuals are stopped at a DUI checkpoint or otherwise pulled over by law enforcement, they can refuse to take a breathalyzer test or perform field sobriety tests. By doing so, they may be arrested, after which they must consent to a urine, blood, or breath test or face a fine and possible license suspension. By refusing roadside testing, the driver delays any test results and may delay long enough that their blood test results indicate a lower blood alcohol level. However, the state’s implied consent laws mean that the individual could face additional penalties for this refusal if law enforcement has probable cause to believe the individual is driving while impaired. Therefore, individuals may wish to discuss these options with an attorney before deciding whether to consent to or decline these roadside tests.

Which Factors Can Affect A Person’s Blood Alcohol Content?

There are a wide variety of factors that can affect an individual’s blood alcohol level. Some can be controlled by the individual, such as how much they drink or how quickly. Others are out of the individual’s control, such as their genetics or age. Each factor will affect different individuals differently, so it is important that individuals do not assume that because their father, brother, sister, friend, or other person who shares similar characteristics is affected a certain way, they will be too. 

The Amount of Alcohol They Drink

This is the most obvious factor and most people are aware that the amount of alcohol they drink will affect their blood alcohol level. The more alcohol an individual drinks, the higher their BAC will be. However, it is important to remember that because different alcoholic beverages can contain different percentages of alcohol, there is no simple method of determining how many drinks they can have before they become impaired. 

How Quickly They Drink 

The rate at which someone drinks will also have a significant impact on their blood alcohol content. The same individual will have a higher blood alcohol level if they drink four beers in one hour than if they drink those four beers over the course of four or five hours. They may also have a higher BAC if they gulp down a drink in a matter of minutes or seconds than if they sip the drink slowly. 

How Much Food They Have Eaten Before Drinking 

The stomach and small intestines quickly absorb the alcohol ingested, spreading the alcohol into the bloodstream. This means that with an empty stomach, there is more stomach area and a quicker trip to the small intestines for the alcohol to be absorbed. If the individual has just eaten a meal and their stomach is quite full, there is less stomach area to absorb the alcohol and the alcohol cannot move straight to the small intestines. This can result in a lower BAC. Even if the stomach is not completely full, some food in the stomach can help slow the rate of absorption and result in a reduced BAC. However, this does not mean that an individual with food in their stomach cannot get intoxicated. 

Age and Weight 

As people age, their metabolism slows and the liver has a reduced capacity to detoxify the blood, both of which mean the alcohol stays in the individual’s body for longer periods. Additionally, lean body mass and water content is lost as individuals age, causing alcohol to impact them more strongly. 

Weight also affects blood alcohol level. The more someone weighs, the more water content their body has. Water helps dilute the alcohol introduced into their body. However, all weight is not the same. Muscle has more water content than fat. Therefore, if two people weigh exactly the same amount, but one is muscular and the other is simply overweight, the overweight individual may become more impaired than the muscular person. 

The Person’s Genetics

There are genes that produce two enzymes, alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), which assist with the breakdown and flushing of alcohol from the body. Some individuals may have genetic variations that cause their body to metabolize alcohol faster or slower than usual, resulting in lower or higher blood alcohol levels. Some genetic variations can also contribute to the increased risk of developing alcohol use disorders. 

Overall Health

An individual’s overall health also contributes to their blood alcohol content when they are drinking. People who are generally healthier will metabolize alcohol more quickly than those who are less healthy. While this can be as simple as being impacted by having a cold or the flu and drinking, it also applies to more significant health conditions, such as an individual who is suffering from cancer or fatty liver disease. This is one reason why people with health conditions are often instructed not to drink. 

Their Gender

Men and women are affected differently by alcohol. Men generally seem to metabolize alcohol more quickly than women do. Men usually have more of the enzymes that break down alcohol than women do, and women also tend to have more estrogen and body fat plus lower water content than men, which typically results in women having a stronger and longer response to alcohol than men. 

Altitude at Which They Are Drinking

Altitude is not always a factor in determining an individual’s blood alcohol level. However, for the first few days at a higher altitude, drinks can be more potent and increase an individual’s blood alcohol content. Once the individual has become acclimated to the higher altitude, this tends to be less of a factor, if it remains a factor at all. 

Fatigue Level

Individuals who are mentally, physically, or emotionally exhausted may have higher blood alcohol levels. This may also be true for people who are stressed, as high stress levels often interfere with sleep and may thus cause the individual to feel more fatigued. 

Medication or Drugs Taken

Over-the-counter, prescription, and illegal drugs may all impact a person’s blood alcohol level. The alcohol may also increase the effects of the drugs. The combination of the drug and the alcohol may also have dangerous interactions. Finally, this can lead to multiple DWI charges if the individual is both intoxicated by alcohol and has drugs in their system at the same time. 

Alcohol Tolerance Level

Alcohol tolerance level is how efficient the liver is at metabolizing alcohol. However, those who consume large amounts of alcohol on a regular basis may cause their liver to produce more enzymes to help metabolize the alcohol. This is why people who are addicted to alcohol often have a higher alcohol tolerance level than others. 

Type of Alcohol Being Consumed

The type of alcohol being consumed can also have a significant impact on an individual’s blood alcohol level. For example, a beer often has a lower percentage of alcohol than a shot of tequila. Someone may drink four beers and have a lower blood alcohol level than when they drink two shots. 

Artificially Sweetened Mixers

The National Library of Medicine indicates that there is limited research that consuming alcohol sweetened with an artificially sweetened mixer may lead to a higher breath alcohol concentration than consuming alcohol with a mixer sweetened with regular sugar. They also found that peak blood alcohol concentrations were higher after consuming diet alcohol drinks versus regular ones. 

Perhaps more important to this research was the fact that the individuals who were participating in the studies were unaware of the differences between mixing the same amount of alcohol with an artificially sweetened mixer or a regular sugar-sweetened mixer. With many individuals, often women, choosing diet drinks in a calorie-conscious attempt to lose or maintain weight, this could be a significant factor. However, the study also notes that women often have higher breath alcohol concentrations than men, so it is not yet clear whether this is a factor. 

How Much Can a Person Drink Before They Become Impaired?

Unfortunately, there is no single, clear answer to how much an individual can drink before they become impaired. The factors that impact blood alcohol levels must be considered, and every person is unique. This means those factors will affect each person differently, and may even affect the same person differently on different days, based on how other factors have changed. 

Any amount of alcohol can affect someone’s ability to drive, so individuals should be cautious in deciding that they can drive because they have only had a certain number of drinks. New drivers or those who are recently old enough to drink should exercise extra caution, as they do not have any experience to determine how the alcohol will impact them in general, or their ability to drive specifically. 

Effects on the Body At Different Blood Alcohol Levels

Blood alcohol content has a variety of levels, and while most people know the legal limit for driving, they may not realize that they can be impaired long before that level. Consider the following blood alcohol levels and the effects they can have on the individual’s body: 

  • BAC 0.0% – No alcohol in the blood; the individual is sober. 
  • BAC 0.02% – Individual’s mood is altered, increased relaxation, and a slight loss of judgment occurs. 
  • BAC 0.05% – This is over the legal limit for commercial drivers (0.04%). Individuals may have feelings of being uninhibited, with impaired judgment and lowered alertness. 
  • BAC 0.08% – This is the legal limit where drivers may be charged with a DWI, per the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. At this blood alcohol level, there is diminished muscle coordination, impaired judgment and reasoning, and it is more difficult to detect danger.
  • BAC 0.10% – Individuals may experience reduced reaction times, slowed thinking, and slurred speech. 
  • BAC 0.15% – Individuals may notice an even more altered mood, loss of balance and some muscle control, and nausea or vomiting. 
  • BAC 0.16% to 0.30% – Drivers may be charged with Aggravated DWI if their blood alcohol level is 0.18% or higher. They may experience confusion, drowsiness, and vomiting. 
  • BAC 0.31% to 0.40% – The individual will likely experience alcohol poisoning at these levels and may also have a loss of consciousness. 
  • BAC over 0.40% – Any level over 0.40% is potentially fatal. The individual risks coma and death from respiratory arrest. 

Individuals should be aware that these are the common effects of alcohol at these blood alcohol levels. They may or may not experience all of these effects and some people may experience effects that are not listed. Additionally, for levels between 0.05% and 0.07%, New York law enforcement can charge drivers with Driving While Ability Impaired by Alcohol (DWAI/Alcohol).

Can Products Other Than Alcoholic Drinks Register a Blood Alcohol Level?

According to the New York Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee, cough syrups, tinctures, breath sprays, mouthwash, and non-alcoholic beer can all contain alcohol. Therefore, they may register on a breath test shortly after use, but generally this does not last very long unless the product is consumed. Additionally, to impact an individual’s blood alcohol level, these products may need to be consumed in large quantities. The amount of these products that may need to be consumed to impact blood alcohol content could potentially cause other, more serious issues. However, if an individual has reason to believe that another product may have been responsible for a DWI charge, they may want to consult with the Law Office of Benjamin Greenwald to learn more about their legal options. 

Are There Ways to Quickly Get Sober?

There are many suggestions regarding how to quickly get sober after becoming intoxicated. However, cold showers, fresh air, food, exercise, and coffee are all myths that have no effect on how inebriated a person is. The only way to get sober is to wait for the body to metabolize the alcohol. 

How a New York DWI Attorney Can Assist You

Individuals may feel sober, but determining their blood alcohol level without a laboratory test is impossible. This makes it all too easy to be charged with a DWI because you felt you were unimpaired and could drive. A New York DWI attorney may be able to find flaws in your traffic stop, DUI checkpoint, or in how the blood test was done. An attorney may also be able to ensure your rights are protected and if necessary, negotiate with the prosecution to reduce the charges. They may also be diversionary programs or other pre-trial interventions that an attorney can advocate for your placement in to avoid a conviction. If you would like to explore all of your legal options, contact the Law Office of Benjamin Greenwald at (845) 567-4820 for a confidential consultation.