Dots Reading

Dots Reading

After having a few cocktails, how many hours must elapse to get a clear reading of a DOT test?

It depends on a huge number of factors.

Alcohol in your system is broken down by your liver (alcohol is technically a toxin - i.e. a poison that the body treats as something that must be got rid of). The rate that alcohol is absorbed into your body in the first place (which dictates how quickly you become intoxicated) and the rate that your liver destroys the alcohol in your body (which determines how quickly you sober up afterwards) is dependant on a whole range of factors, such as:-

* when you last ate (and what you ate) - this can affect the rate of absorbtion of alcohol into your bloodstream
* your general health, in particular the health of your liver - if your liver is in poor condition it will take longer to break down the alcohol. Even something like a common cold may affect the rate your body deals with alcohol.
* your body weight - if you are a small person then a given amount of alcohol will, in effect, be more concentrated inside you
* whether you are male or female - in general men are able to break down alcohol more rapidly
* your ethnic background - caucasian (white) people started drinking alcohol a very long time ago - basically making "beer" and "wine" (must weaker than modern drinks) was a way of purifying water. Asian peoples purified water by boiling and added flavourings (i.e. tea). Thus caucasians have gradually developed more resistance and a greater ability to deal with alcohol in their bodies.
* whether you are a regular drinker - if you drink regularly then your liver becomes adapted to dealing with the alcohol. As an extreme example, alcoholics frequently drink amounts that would literally kill a non-drinker

The added problem with cocktails is that their alcohol content may be difficult to determine because they are mixed and slight differences in the measurement of the ingredients may alter the amount of alcohol you are drinking.

The situation gets even worse with alcoholic "punches" at parties where they may start off mainly as a slightly alcoholic fruit punch and then people tend to add more alcoholic ingredients during the evening until you end up with something closer to pure vodka. These drinks are best avoided if you plan to drive anytime in the next 24 hours.

What all this means is that you have no sure-fire way of saying that on any given day after drinking any given amount of alcohol you have a particular number of hours to go before your blood alcohol is below any particular level. Many people make the mistake of drinking heavily and getting up the next day thinking that they are sober enough to drive only to find they are over the limit.

The best solution is to be very cautious about when you are actually within the limits - or get one of the breath test kits that you can now buy to check that you (and everyone else) is safe.

The Dots live at Reading Festival

Dots Reading

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