HALL - CARPENTER, CO.

By Edwin T. Scallon, Copyright © 1990, 1995, 2008 All Rights Reserved

ACCIDENT RECONSTRUCTION AND BAC CALCULATION PROGRAMS

EXCRETION / ELIMINATION OF EtOH

    As stated in the front page of these discussions we have studied the history, manufacture, use of alcohol and now the elimination of alcohol from the body. We have also learned that upon death the body ceases to eliminate or oxidize (catabolize) alcohol. But for us the living, we do not store alcohol, but rather eliminate it in a few different ways. Unassumedly, one can understand elimination through the excretory system urine and solid material but perspirations and breath play an important role in elimination of alcohol. Remember, alcohol is never digested, it has no real function other than its intended function.

    Alcohol is eliminated from the body by excretion and metabolism. Most alcohol is metabolized, or burned, in a manner similar to food, yielding carbon dioxide and water. A small portion of alcohol is excreted through breath leaving the body in its original pure state as alcohol, unchanged. It is this latter process that allows for breath alcohol testing.

   Average elimination occurs at a constant rater for a given individual. The median rate of decrease in BAC is considered to be 15 milligrams per cent(mg%) per hour. The range of decrease in BAC is 10-20 mg% per hour. This range represents the extreme ends of the rate encountered in a normal population. Most people eliminate at a rate of between13 and 18 mg% per hour. Of these, the majority eliminates at the higher end. Very few people eliminate at as low a rate as 10 mg% per hour.

   Calculations using blood alcohol curve makes it possible to estimate the following 1) Blood alcohol leaves at a given time based upon an indicated consumption scenario; 2) Quantity of alcohol required to produce a known blood alcohol level at a given time; 3) Blood alcohol concentration for a given subject at a time previous to sample collection (retrograde extrapolation = BackCalculation), or at a time subsequent to sample collection (anteretrograde extrapolation).

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