What to do if you drink alcohol without drinking?

Traffic police force of Hai Duong City Police check alcohol concentration of drivers

Driver Nguyen Van Thao in Tu Minh ward (Hai Duong city) strongly supports and strictly complies with the regulations on driving and not drinking alcohol. Mr. Thao shared that if drivers violate the law, in addition to being fined a large amount of money, the penalty they fear most is having their driver's license revoked for up to 2 years. Being a driver and having your license "suspended" means losing your job. However, Mr. Thao still wonders whether eating foods and drinks containing alcohol such as beer-steamed fish, beef stew, fermented fruit or taking medicine will have an alcohol concentration or not?

Mr. Thao asked: “The alcohol concentration test depends on each person’s constitution. Some people drink a can of beer the night before, the next day the alcohol concentration test is 0, but some people still have alcohol when tested. So how long does it take for the body to convert all the alcohol to 0? In the case of a blood alcohol concentration test, who pays?”

Mr. Thao's questions are also well-founded because in addition to beer and wine, alcohol also appears in some fermented foods such as purple sticky rice yogurt, fermented fruit juice or dishes that use alcohol during processing (beer-steamed fish, beer-steamed shrimp, red wine-sauced meat...) and fruits with high sugar content (jackfruit, lychee, durian...).

Major Nguyen Manh Duc, Deputy Head of the Traffic Police and Order Team, Hai Duong City Police, said that during the process of checking and handling alcohol concentration, there have been cases where drivers did not consume alcohol, but their breath still had alcohol concentration. There was a case where a driver was carrying 3-4 other people who had drunk alcohol and was sitting in a closed car with the air conditioner on. Although this driver did not drink alcohol, the breath test still had alcohol concentration, although the result was very low. In that case, after the driver got out of the car, drank water and was re-tested, the alcohol concentration was 0. As for eating fruit or drinking syrup and blowing out alcohol concentration, there have been no recorded cases.

Discussing the issue of eating fermented fruit and beer-steamed fish that increase alcohol levels, a representative of the Traffic and Order Police Team, Cam Giang District Police, also informed that the unit has not recorded any such cases. However, during the process of checking and handling alcohol levels, many cases deliberately used the excuse of treating illnesses, eating fermented fruit, etc. to justify the use of alcohol.

Measuring blood alcohol concentration and breath alcohol concentration are two commonly used methods to test a person's alcohol level after consuming alcohol.

Dr. Le Quang Duc, Deputy Director of the Provincial General Hospital, said that blood alcohol concentration is based on the process of alcohol exchange and metabolism in the body, while breath alcohol concentration reflects the immediate condition.

The alcohol content created by other drinks and foods in the body is very low, and will disappear completely after a short time of 15-30 minutes, so people do not have to worry about this. In order to avoid having to worry about eating fermented fruits or foods containing alcohol, traffic participants should rest at least 30 minutes to 1 hour before driving.

Normally, when checking for alcohol concentration, if the breath test result shows alcohol concentration, the police will ask and the citizen has the right to answer about the cause of the alcohol concentration. In cases where alcohol is not consumed while participating in traffic, accurate diagnostic procedures can be carried out through testing in accordance with the provisions of law.

Testing for blood alcohol concentration of drivers of road motor vehicles is specifically regulated in Joint Circular No. 26/2014/TTLT-BYT-BCA of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Public Security dated July 23, 2014. This Circular clearly states the cases of testing for blood alcohol concentration, conditions of medical facilities performing blood alcohol concentration testing; testing procedures; payment of blood alcohol concentration testing costs.

Accordingly, if the driver of a road motor vehicle violates the Road Traffic Law, he/she will have to pay the cost of testing for alcohol concentration in the blood according to the current price of medical examination and treatment services prescribed by the competent state agency for state medical examination and treatment facilities. If the driver of a road motor vehicle does not violate the Road Traffic Law, the payment of the cost of determining alcohol concentration will be specifically divided into each case, with and without health insurance. At the same time, the responsibility for paying the cost of testing for alcohol concentration in the blood will be determined based on each case.

RUSSIA

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