How Long Does Alcohol Stay on Your Breath?

You may be worried about how long does alcohol stay on your breath? Motorists can be stopped and required to take a breath test by police at the scene of a road traffic accident if a police officer suspects a motorist may be driving under the influence of alcohol or if a motorist commits a moving traffic offense.

Alcohol abuse is a life-threatening condition that can lead to a constant health crisis, alcohol use disorder, and even death. Immediate help is the only way to avoid harm to yourself or a loved one. Fortunately, safe and comfortable alcohol detox is attainable if you seek professional help rather than detox by yourself and face harmful withdrawal symptoms.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [1], every day:

• About 32 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes — that’s one person every 45 minutes
• In 2020, 11,654 people died in alcohol-impaired driving traffic deaths — a 14% increase from 2019
• In 2020, there were 2,041 people killed in alcohol-related crashes where a driver had a BAC of .01 to .07 g/dL
• About 30% of all traffic crash fatalities in the United States involve drunk drivers (with BACs of .08 g/dL or higher)

These deaths were all preventable. First, we have to understand what is Blood Alcohol Content (BAC). BAC is measured with a breathalyzer, a device that measures the amount of alcohol in a driver’s breath, or by a blood test.

How Long Does Alcohol Stay on Your Breath for Breathalyzer?

A breathalyzer can detect alcohol on the breath for up to 24 hours. The amount of time that alcohol stays detectable on the breath depends on the person and the amount of alcohol consumed. The detection time may change and may depend on the person’s alcohol metabolism, which is affected by many factors, including age and weight.

Blood alcohol level results may be given in different ways, including the percentage of blood alcohol content (BAC). Typical results [3] are below.

• Sober: 0.0 percent BAC
• Legally intoxicated: .08 percent BAC
• Very impaired: .08–0.40 percent BAC. At this blood alcohol level, you may have difficulty walking and speaking. Other symptoms may include confusion, nausea, and drowsiness.
• At risk for serious complications: Above .40 percent BAC. At this blood alcohol level, you may be at risk for coma or death.

How Long Does Alcohol Stay on Your Breath for Interlock?

An ignition interlock device or breath alcohol ignition interlock device (IID or BAIID) is a breathalyzer for an individual’s vehicle. measures the electrical current and figures out how much alcohol had to be in your breath to create that electrical current. If that amount is under the threshold of 0.02 BAC, the device will allow a signal to pass from the ignition to the starter, and the vehicle’s engine will turn on.

How Long Does Alcohol Stay on Your Breath? – Why Drinking and Driving are So Dangerous?

Alcohol is a depressant; it sedates the central nervous system. One of the first areas of the brain to be affected is the cerebral cortex, which controls judgment, self-control, and inhibitions. Alcohol’s sedating effects impair a driver’s decision-making skills and coordination. As a result, an impaired driver cannot quickly and decisively avoid an accident or even conduct routine driving maneuvers.

If you refuse to take a breathalyzer or think the test wasn’t accurate, you may ask for or be asked to take a blood-alcohol test.

^{Source: Alcohol breath testing – National Center for Biotechnology Information https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1124861/}

Learn More:

• Alcohol Abuse
• Symptoms of Alcohol Use Disorder
• Alcoholism and Financial Problems
• Alcohol and Aging
• Alcohol and Insomnia
• Kindling Alcohol
• Alcoholic Cirrhosis
• Mixing Prescription Drugs with Alcohol
• Dry Drunk Syndrome
• Inpatient Alcohol Rehab Center
• Alcoholism Treatment, Signs, Complications & Rehab Programs
• Alcoholic Hepatitis Treatments
• Wet Brain Treatment
• Alcoholism Treatment Near Me
• Alcohol Withdrawal Treatment

According to the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 85.6 percent of people ages 18 and older reported that they drank alcohol at some point in their lifetime.

Source: NIAAA

An estimated 95,000 people (approximately 68,000 men and 27,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes annually.

Source: NIAAA

How Long Does Alcohol Stay on Your Breath? – How Long Can Alcohol Stay in My System?

The rate of absorption of alcohol depends on several factors. It is quickest, for example, when alcohol is drunk on an empty stomach, and the concentration of alcohol is 20-30%. The liver eliminates more than 90% alcohol; 2-5% is excreted unchanged in urine, sweat, or breath.

On an empty stomach, blood alcohol concentration peaks about one hour after consumption, depending on the amount drunk; it then declines more or less linearly for the next four hours. Alcohol is removed from the blood at a rate of about 3.3 mmol/hour (15 mg/100 ml/hour), but this varies in different people, on other drinking occasions, and with the amount of alcohol drunk. [5]

On average, the liver can process 1 ounce of alcohol every hour, and it can be detected in the blood for several hours and in the urine for several days. It can also take 6 to 12 hours before the alcohol fully clears out of your bloodstream, causing alcohol hangovers.

Healthcare professionals use criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) to assess a person and determine if the alcohol abuse is severe or if one has developed an alcohol use disorder. Severity is based on the number of criteria a person meets based on their symptoms—mild (2–3 criteria), moderate (4–5 criteria), or severe (6 or more criteria). [7]

A healthcare provider might ask the following questions to assess a person’s alcohol abuse symptoms.

In the past year, have you:

1. Have times when you ended up drinking more, or longer, than you intended?
2. More than once, wanted to cut down or stop drinking or tried to, but couldn’t?
3. Spent a lot of time drinking? Or being sick or getting over other aftereffects?
4. Wanted a drink so badly you couldn’t think of anything else?
5. Found that drinking—or being sick from drinking—often interfered with taking care of your home or family? Or caused job troubles? Or school problems?
6. Continued to drink even though it was causing trouble with your family or friends?
7. Give up or cut back on activities that were important or interesting to you or gave you pleasure to drink.
8. More than once gotten into situations while or after drinking that increased your chances of getting hurt (such as driving, swimming, using machinery, walking in a dangerous area, or having unprotected sex)?
9. Continued to drink even though it made you feel depressed or anxious or added to another health problem? Or after having had a memory blackout?
10. Had to drink much more than you once did to get the effect you want? Or found that your usual number of drinks had much less effect than before?
11. Found that when the effects of alcohol were wearing off, you had alcohol withdrawal symptoms, such as trouble sleeping, shakiness, restlessness, nausea, sweating, a racing heart, or a seizure. Or sensed things that were not there?