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Blood-Alcohol Content (BAC)
The results of breath testing for blood-alcohol content (BAC) are fairly accurate if administered properly. Law enforcement officers are trained by the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) to administer these tests.
However, your defense DUI lawyer would attempt to have your breath test results dismissed at a trial for several reasons.
Breath analyzer machines are fairly accurate, but they are still estimating the BAC. If your BAC was very close to the legal limit, there is a chance that a slight inaccuracy would show you as illegally intoxicated when in fact you were only close.
Some machines give inaccurate readings based on what the person might have had in their mouth just prior to the test. For instance, if a nervous driver swilled some alcohol-based mouthwash to reduce the odor of alcohol, the reading of the breath analyzer might be inaccurately high. Common sugar alcohols found in sugar-free products are maltitol, sorbitol, isomalt, and xylitol. Sugar alcohols, while not truly alcoholic in that they could not impair your performance when ingested, are incompletely absorbed by the body and are suspected of reacting like alcohol as far as breath testing is concerned. However, other tests refute this suggestion. One report suggested that certain breads had a similar effect on readings.
Products that are not ingested, such as paints and paint removers and gasoline, have been accused of created false high BAC readings when the person was in close proximity for an extended period of time.
Correct calibration of hand-held breath testing devices is critical in order to produce accurate readings. At a trial, your defense attorney is likely to challenge law enforcement administrators on many of these aspects and more.
While there are many cries of ‘unfair’ as to using breath testing results as evidence at a DUI trial, most states do allow these results to be used against a suspect.
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