Partition Ratio Is The Hidden Devil In The Details For Breath Alcohol Analysis - A Person With A P/R of 1500:1 Will Blow Twice As High As Their Actual Blood Alcohol Level.

David Rosenbloom a Utah DUI attorney detailing supressed weaknesess with Utah Law Enforcement blood alcohol testing.

Simply put, it is a scientific fact that actual Partition Ratio (P/R) in humans varies widely, from 1500:1 to 3450:1. It is also a fact that machines used in America are calibrated to 2100:1 (2300:1 in Europe!). And, more importantly, it is a fact that Partition Ratio is the single most important physiological factor in determining ACTUAL blood alcohol content through use of breath testing. Fact: a person with a P/R of 1500:1 will have a breath alcohol level of .160 when their actual blood alcohol level is a .080 - that's right - the breath result doubles in about 16% of the population. How do you know your partition ratio? You don't - because it varies depending on whether you are in the pre-absorptive or post-absorptive phase; the best you can do would be to test breath vs. blood about five times  during three hours following alcohol ingestion sufficient to bring you to about .080 blood alcohol concentration (BAC), and compare that with your breath alcohol concentration (BrAC).

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Borkenstein et al. Statement, Ad Hoc Committee on the Breath/Blood Alcohol Relationship. Indianapolis.Ind.U.law school Jan 1972

Dave's Plain Language Summary:  Borkenstein, Dubowski, Forney, Sr., Harger, Goldber announced the partition ration principle that has governed breath alcohol analysis in America for the past fifty (50) years since its inception:
2.1 liters of expired alveolar air theoretically contain approximately the same quantity of alcohol as 1 milliliter of blood. They declared the 2100:1 partition ration warranted. Moreover, even thought the actual amount of breath measured is very small (about 80 cc's) and the principle clearly calls for 2.1 litres of breath, every single state in America has blindly accepted the mathematical calculation that changes 80 cc's into 2.1 litres without the manufacturers explaining how that calculation works, and refusing, contrary to numerous court orders - to release the source code that would serve to explain the calculation involved. THERE IS NO OTHER COMPARABLE "RUSE" IN FORENSIC SCIENCE USED IN THE LEGAL ARENA THAT CAN MATCH THE REFUSAL OF BREATH MACHINE MANUFACTURERS TO RELEASE THEIR "SOURCE CODE."

Giguiere & Simpson, Medicolegal Alcohol Determination: In Vivo Blood/Breath Ratios as a Function of Time, Proceedings of the 27th Meeting of the International Association of Forensic Toxicologists 494 (Oct. 1990)

Dave's Plain Language Summary: Alcohol Absorption Averages 50 minutes but can take as long as 100 minutes with decreased motility, resulting in an increased and erroneous breath alcohol level when the subject is tested three to four hours after drinking, or attempting to "sober up."

Jones, Viability of the blood: Breath Alcohol Ration in Vivo, 39(1) Journal of Studies on Alcohol 1931 (1978)

The blood:breath alcohol ratio, commonly used to translate the result of breath alcohol analysis into the co-existing blood alcohol concentration, varies from person to person and within one person over time.

Abstract courtesy of www.pubmed.org - A service of the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health

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Labianca, Simpson, Mediolegal Alcohol Determination: Variability of the Blood - to Breath -Alcohol Ration and Its Effect on Reported Breath Alcohol Concentrations, 33 Eur. J. Clin. Chem. Biochem 919, (1995)

There is substantial agreement among scientists that the variability of a person's blood- to breath-alcohol ratio contributes significantly to the experimental error in results from breath-alcohol analysis. Some have argued that the need to correct for this source of error can be eliminated by reporting breath test results in units of breath-alcohol concentration rather than blood-alcohol concentration. A simple mathematical proof is presented to demonstrate that this is not the case. Moreover, the scientific and legal flaws of this argument are discussed, and recommendations are offered for dealing with the problems that have developed from adoption of this view.

Abstract courtesy of www.pubmed.org - A service of the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health

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Labianca. The Chemical Basis of the Breathalyzer, 67 Journal of Chemical Education 259 (1990)

Labianca, The Flawed Nature of the Calibration Factor in Breath-Alcohol Analysis, 79 Journal of Chemical Education 1237 (2002)

Mason and Dubowski, Alcohol, Traffic, and Chemical Testing in the United States: a resume and some remaining problems. Clin.Chem 20:126-140, 1974

Mason and Dubowski, Breath -Alcohol Analysis: Uses, Methods and Some Forensic Problems: Review and Opinion. 21 Journal of Forensic Sciences 9 (1976)

Dave's Plain Language Summary: The conversion of breath results to blood results is inherently flawed due to wide variations in post-absorptive and pre-absorptive tests, and thus these scientists favor total abandonment of the current scheme which is inherently unfair.

Breath analysis for ethanol, especially in respect to the forensic aspects, has been reviewed. Included are matters dealing with instrumentation, physiological factors involved in the elimination of ethanol via the breath, and, especially, the uncertainties in the calculation of a whole blood concentration of ethanol from the quantity found in breath. We believe that the conversion of a breath quantity to a blood concentration of ethanol, for forensic purposes, should be abandoned and that the offense of driving while under the influence of alcohol should be statutorily defined in terms of the concentration of ethanol found in the breath in jurisdictions employing breath analysis. The breath sample should be obtained and analyzed only with instruments having capabilities which would require some extension of present federal standards for evidential breath-testing devices. Events in early 1975 indicate that implementation of some of these proposals may soon be undertaken.

Abstract courtesy of www.pubmed.org - A service of the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health

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Tsukamoto etal., An Experimental Study on the Ethanol Concentration Ratios of Breath to Body Fluid, 25 Nihon University Journal of Medicine 281 (1983)

Dave's Plain Language Summary:  Abandon the breath to blood conversion, retrograde extrapolation has too many factors to be reliable, and there is no way to insure that partition ratio has ANY real relation to actual ratios which vary greatly due to human physiology. Partition ratio varies greatly between people, particularly between the absorption phase and elimination phase.

We studied the breath/body fluid (blood, salive and urine) ethanol concentration ratios by gas chromatography and with an Alcohol meter AM -481 (Shinano Electric Co.). This paper examines the possibility of estimating the body fluid ethanol concentrations from the breath ethanol concentration. When the breath/body fluid ethanol concentration ratios were plotted on graph paper, the peak was 1:2400 by gas chromatography and 1:2600 with the Alcohol meter AM-481. It is suggested that, although the body fluid ethanol concentrations can to some extent be estimated by analyzing breath for ethanol, it is difficult to give a definite ratio since the ethanol distribution varies considerably with time.