Whenever you are drinking alcohol, your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is slowly climbing. There are many different factors that can influence the increase, such as your body size, your gender and whether you are eating food or drinking water while you consume alcohol.
But when you stop drinking, your body begins to metabolize the alcohol and break it down. This activity is largely carried out by the liver. So, how fast is your blood alcohol concentration going to decline once you have had your last drink?
The standard metabolic rate
Research has found that the general rate for most people is a decline of about 0.015% per hour.
As you can see, this is not very fast. The legal limit for drivers is 0.08%. If someone was at 0.10% and waited for an entire hour, drinking water at the bar before getting into their vehicle, they could still very well be over the legal limit.
Moreover, a person does not reach zero for hours. To stick with the same example, if someone’s blood alcohol concentration was 0.10%, it would likely take over six hours for them to get back to zero.
For this reason, people are often still intoxicated, even if they take a break after drinking at the end of the night. This is also part of the reason why people may find themselves producing positive breath test results the next morning. Even if someone slept through the entire night, if they had a highly elevated BAC, it may still show up on a Breathalyzer.
Legal defense options
Understanding BAC is important, as violations can lead to drunk driving charges. For those who are facing such charges and the potential of jail time, fines and a license suspension, it is crucial to know what legal defense options are available.