The error of the breathalyzer when checking for intoxication. Alcohol calculator 0 17 ppm what will happen

Now a person who has at least a hundredth of a ppm in his blood does not have the right to drive. Therefore, from now on, not only non-alcoholic beer, koumiss and chocolate will be dangerous for motorists, but even, it turns out, the very thoughts of alcohol! All this can increase the level of alcohol in the blood up to 0.3-0.4 ppm. "MK" in St. Petersburg found out

What products and thoughts will drivers now have to give up

For a person who has not consumed alcohol, 0.0 ppm is a completely normal state of the body, - says a narcologist with 20 years of experience Natalya Subashy. - But some foods do raise blood alcohol levels. If the packaging says that the product contains alcohol even in small quantities, then it is better to refuse it. Do not drink non-alcoholic beer. There is often a degree. Kvass is as dangerous as koumiss.

Immediately after drinking a jar of kvass, the breathalyzer shows, as a rule, 0.4 ppm. This is already quite enough to send the “fined” driver for a blood test. Non-alcoholic beer gives 0.2 ppm.
The situation is not much better with koumiss. After a drained jar of this drink, the level of alcohol in the blood rises to 0.3 ppm. It is best to give up juice while driving.

For the production of juices, a special concentrate for alcohol is now used, - explains Natalya Subashy. - He has a habit of wandering around. If the juice package has not been in the refrigerator for some time, then it is better not to drink it. There will definitely be a small amount of alcohol in the blood.

Oddly enough, kefir turned out to be a stronghold of safety for drivers. Even if you drink 2 liters of this drink, the breathalyzer will be "silent". To get drunk, you have to miraculously “destroy” a bucket of kefir at a time. Doctors equate this "horse dose" to 30 grams of vodka.

Two control breaths

But not only drinks can now let the driver down. The list of dangerous foods includes candy, fruits, baked goods, and even mouth freshener spray.

Mouth freshener sprays usually contain ethyl alcohol, says Natalya Subashy. - Therefore, the breathalyzer may well show 0.4–0.5 ppm. Even a smoked cigarette is now dangerous. Trust me, she'll add her ppm.

So, after 25 sweets with cognac, 50 grams of alcohol enters the body. And one harmless cake "rum woman" can increase the level of alcohol in the blood to 0.3 ppm. Cause for concern - and slightly overripe bananas and oranges.

However, not everything is so bad. Already 20-30 minutes after the “dangerous” dinner, the breathalyzer will not show even a hundredth of a ppm.

Be sure to insist on two measurements with a breathalyzer, - says Natalya Subashy. - 20 minutes after the first treatment, the result may be completely different. If something still bothers you, it's worth doing a blood test. You cannot refuse this request.
It is worth paying attention to the alcometer. His model must be allowed for use in Russia. And the test itself can pass only with the participation of two witnesses.

"Dangerous" foods (after which the concentration of alcohol in the blood rises)

• Non-alcoholic beer - 0.1–0.4 ppm
• Chocolate candy (8 pieces) or Halls Menthol candy - 0.1 ppm
• Thoughts on alcohol - 0.1 - 0.12 ppm
• Alcohol-containing medicines (40 drops of motherwort, corvalol, valocordin, calendula, valerian, valoserdin, barboval, as well as tinctures: pepper, menthol, hawthorn, peony and licorice root) - 0.1 ppm
• Yeast kvass (0.5 liters) - 0.1–0.6 ppm
• Orange - 0.17 ppm
• Slightly fermented kefir, yogurt, curdled milk - 0.2 ppm
• Cigarette - 0.2 ppm
• Black bread with sausage -0.2 ppm
• Slightly overripe banana -0.22 ppm
• Koumiss - 0.3 ppm
• Rum baba - 0.3 ppm
• 25 sweets with vodka or cognac - 0.3–0.4 ppm
• Juices - 0.4 ppm
• Mouth freshener spray - 0.4–0.5 ppm

In the legislation of the Russian Federation, changes were made regarding the zero content of alcohol in human blood. According to the new regulation, the driver has the right to have 0.16 ppm in the blood when passing the test for alcohol.

However, the question arises, 0.16 ppm in the blood, how many liters of alcohol can you drink?

Many citizens believe that the new law allows you to drink alcohol and still drive a vehicle.

What is ppm?

Promille - This is a value that allows you to identify the alcohol content in the air exhaled by a person. Scientists conducted studies in which they found that 1% alcohol is equal to 10% ppm. This value is considered the most accurate when measuring the amount of alcohol content in the body.

This indicator is used by breathalyzers, and also in the laboratory, when taking blood, a chemical analysis is carried out in ppm.

For each person is an individual calculation of alcohol in exhaled air. Everyone knows that women are much more susceptible to alcohol than men. In women, ethanol is absorbed into the blood faster, so the accumulation of alcohol is higher.

To accurately measure the amount of alcohol in the body, it is necessary to test 30 minutes after the last glass of alcohol consumed. Since at this time in the body its highest concentration is observed.

Promille will accurately show the amount of alcohol consumed, what kind of alcohol a person drank, how much alcohol contained revolutions, and how long it will take the body to completely cleanse itself of the ethanol contained in it.

In order for testing to show accurate results, it is necessary to take into account some individual characteristics. What weight and height a person has, age, gender. When analyzing, it is necessary to take into account the content of liquid substances in the body.

When drinking alcohol, you must follow certain rules. They will help slow down the absorption of alcohol into the blood, as well as improve well-being. When drinking, it is necessary to have a snack, the food should be fatty and heavy, this helps to slow down the entry of ethanol into the internal organs.

After taking alcohol, it is advisable not to go to bed, because during sleep the body rests, which means that the process of purification does not occur.

These rules are suitable for those who drank a very small amount of alcoholic beverage. You can drive a car after one hour, since during this time the amount of alcohol in the exhaled air will significantly decrease.

How much alcohol can you drink?

After the adoption of the law, many became interested in how much alcohol can be drunk and at the same time drive a vehicle.

It is rather difficult to answer the question. Each person has a different relationship with alcohol. One can drink 0.5 vodka and still feel great. And another person, when drinking beer in an amount of 0.5 liters, may feel very intoxicated. This law does not allow the consumption of alcohol in large quantities.

The government has canceled the zero rate due to the fact that many foods and medicines contain ethyl alcohol. From this food and medicine, the driver will not be able to get very drunk, so you can safely drive and not worry that your driver's license will be taken away.

For those who like to drink strong drinks, you need to be careful. At a rate of 0.16 ppm, it is permissible to drink a small amount, for example, 50 grams of cognac or vodka, 200 ml of champagne and wine, 0.5 liters of light beer. It is not recommended to drink dark beer, it contains much more alcohol, and also slows down its removal from the body.

Important to remember that if you feel that you are very drunk from alcohol, then it is better not to drive a vehicle. With severe intoxication, the device can show 2 ppm, and this threatens to deprive a driver's license for a maximum period.

With such a norm, the driver cannot control everything that happens on the road. Therefore, it creates a danger for all road users.

Should you drink before you drive?

Of course, the state met the drivers and admitted the presence of alcohol in the blood. However, 0.16 ppm in exhaled air corresponds to 0.35 blood alcohol. This is a very small amount of ethyl alcohol. You also need to be careful, the law is designed to prevent corruption, since most breathalyzers have deviations.

This law contributes to the fact that a person who did not drink was not subjected to administrative punishment. But, for a driver under the influence of intoxication, the law is unlikely to help avoid punishment.

A drunk driver can easily become a participant in an accident, as the concentration of attention is greatly reduced, the reaction may be delayed. It is quite difficult to hide strong alcohol intoxication, any traffic police officer, smelling alcohol, will ask you to be tested using a breathalyzer, the device will indicate the content of the excess in the blood.

If the driver does not agree with the testimony of the breathalyzer, he can be examined in a medical institution.

If, after drinking alcohol, it became necessary to drive a car, then it is necessary to calculate the approximate amount of time it takes to completely remove alcohol from the body.

There is a table that will allow you to roughly calculate. However, it must be remembered that all indicators are extremely individual.

A person who weighs 85 kg drinks a 0.5 liter bottle of beer. Complete cleansing of the body will occur after 2 hours. After this period, you can safely drive and the device will not indicate the ppm of alcohol in the body.

But a person with a lower body weight, for example, 65 kg, needs to wait about 3.5 hours before driving. If a person has consumed a large amount of alcohol, then at least 17 hours must pass before driving.

If it is possible to refrain from driving, then it is better not to drive a car after drinking alcohol. Life and health are much more important.

Drivers who are forced to be tested by a breathalyzer are interested in the question of permissible ppm. The introduction of the definition of “the maximum permissible concentration of alcohol in the blood” made it possible to think that it is possible to drink, but only to the required degree, so that the readings of the breathalyzer are not too exceeded. But you should know what the measuring device shows, how to read and interpret it correctly.

Promille: designation of the concept

Before determining the volume of alcohol consumed, characterized by one or another value in ppm, one should understand the unit of measurement itself. It does not hurt to find out what dose of alcohol is taken per unit, the effect of a standard dose on human behavior and other parameters. So ppm is a thousandth of a percent. Being one of the smallest and most accurate units, the indicator is calculated as follows: 1% contains 10 ppm. It is this unit that is taken for calculating alcohol in the laboratory, since the percentage ratio turns out to be too large an indicator.

Important! When calculating and interpreting the testimony, one should take into account the gender of the person, his weight and metabolism. The toxic effect of alcohol varies: for women, the standard is 60%, for men 65-75%, so the same dose of drinks accumulates ppm faster in the female body.

How many ppm is in alcoholic beverages?

Is one ppm in the blood a lot or a little? Keep in mind rules such as:

1. A half-liter bottle of vodka contains 200 ml of pure alcohol, which is converted to 2.5 ‰ (per mille designation) in the body of a healthy man weighing 75 kg. Such breathalyzer readings are classified as serious intoxication.

1. Cognac shows about the same as vodka - 2.5 ‰;
2. Half a liter of beer (one bottle) contains 0.32‰, that is, a quarter liter will show only 0.16‰ on the measuring device - but the same indicator can be attributed to the standard errors of the device.
3. A drink up to 12% with a volume of 0.7 liters will show 12‰.

Much depends on the degree and assimilation of the drink by a person. For example, champagne is quickly absorbed, showing ‰ on the tester, but it is also quickly excreted. And devices can also catch alcohol vapors contained in the exhalation - that is, those residues that remain in a person even after complete sobering up.

Self-calculation ppm

The highest peak in blood alcohol content occurs about half an hour after taking a dose. Knowing the calculation in units of ‰, it is easy to calculate the following values:

• The amount of ethyl alcohol in the body after some time;
• The volume of the drink;
• Alcohol release date.

You will need to clarify factors such as: gender, age, weight and volume of drink consumed from the very beginning. And now an example of calculating ppm:

• A man weighing 82 kg drank 0.5 liters of vodka;
• The mass of the liquid will be approximately 54.4 kg - the standards allow the volume of water in the male body to be up to 70%;
• The ethanol content in vodka is 500 * 0.4 = 200 ml, which in grams is 200 * 0.79 = 158 gr. (The index 0.79 is the density of undiluted ethanol). Theoretically, the content of 100% alcohol will be 142.2 grams. (158 gr. - 10%);
• Total calculation ‰ = 142.5/57.4 = 2.48‰.

The formula is extremely simple, so everyone can calculate the presence of ‰ in the body in a given period of time. It is important that the number of indications does not exceed the norms allowed by law. For ease of calculation, the following data are given - a separate table for women and men.

Men's blood alcohol concentration (‰) by weight and number of drinks drunk:

weight	1 dose	2 doses	3 doses	4 doses	5 doses
45	0,43	0,87	1,3	1,74	2,17
55	0,34	0,69	1,0	1,39	1,73
70	0,29	0,58	0,87	1,16	1,45
80	0,25	0,5	0,75	1,0	1,25
90	0,22	0,43	0,65	0,87	1,08
100	0,19	0,39	0,58	0,78	0,97
110	0,17	0,35	0,52	0,7	0,87

Blood alcohol concentration in women (‰) by weight and number of drinks drunk:

weight	1 dose	2 doses	3 doses	4 doses	5 doses
45	0,50	1,01	1,52	2,03	2,53
55	0,4	0,8	1,2	1,62	2,02
70	0,34	0,68	1,01	1,35	1,69
80	0,28	0,58	0,87	1,17	1,46
90	0,26	0,5	0,76	1,01	1,26
100	0,22	0,45	0,68	0,91	1,13
110	0,2	0,41	0,61	0,82	1,01

Permissible limits for breathalyzer readings

In order to correctly read the testimony, one should understand what norms are regulated in certain countries. In particular, the largest allowable rate is ‰1.00 in some US states. But Hungary, Czechoslovakia and a number of other countries do not allow the presence of alcohol in the blood at all, that is, ‰ = 0.00. In Russia, in 2008, a permissible norm of 0.3 ‰ was adopted, however, the law was adopted taking into account the errors of measuring instruments, the characteristics of the body, that is, the factors affecting the readings of the device. This situation led to a complete ban on the consumption of alcoholic beverages and “zero ‰”, which also turned out to be impossible due to the characteristics of the human body and inaccurate measurements on the breathalyzer.

In 2013, the allowable indicator returned again, amounting to 0.16‰ when exhaling or 0.3‰ in the blood. Breathalyzer readings in this interval are considered normal, no claims are made against drivers. However, the inaccuracy of these measuring instruments often leads to a situation where the slightest excess in ppm leads to the fact that the motorist is considered drunk and punished to the fullest extent of the law. There is only one way out - do not drink while driving, before the intended trip and let the alcohol leave the body after the previous rest.

On Saturday I was stopped by the traffic police and told to undergo an examination for intoxication. Breathalyzer showed 0.17 mg per liter of alcohol. But the error of the device is somewhere around 0.05 mg per liter. Can I be held liable if the reading of the device minus the error of the device is less than indicated in the article of the code?

• Question: No. 487 dated: 2014-03-04.

According to Part 1 of Art. 12.8 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, driving a vehicle by a driver who is in a state of intoxication entails the imposition of an administrative fine in the amount of thirty thousand rubles with deprivation of the right to drive vehicles for a period of one and a half to two years.

At the same time, the article contains a note of the following nature: the use of substances that cause alcohol or drug intoxication, or psychotropic or other substances that cause intoxication is prohibited. The administrative liability provided for by this article and part 3 of article 12.27 of this Code occurs in the event of the established fact of the use of substances that cause alcoholic intoxication, which is determined by the presence of absolute ethyl alcohol in a concentration exceeding the possible total measurement error, namely 0.16 milligrams per liter of exhaled air, or in the case of the presence of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances in the human body.

At the moment, the procedure for a medical examination for intoxication is established by the Instructions for conducting a medical examination for the state of intoxication of a person who drives a vehicle and filling out the registration form 307 / U-05 "Medical examination report that drives a vehicle", approved by Order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation dated 07/14/2003 N 308 "On a medical examination for intoxication."

Until recently, this instruction included paragraph 16, which sounded as follows: a conclusion on the state of intoxication as a result of alcohol consumption is issued if the results of determining alcohol in the exhaled air using one of the technical measuring instruments carried out with an interval of 20 minutes are positive, or if no less than two different technical means of indicating the presence of alcohol in the exhaled air, using both of them at each examination conducted with an interval of 20 minutes. In paragraph 16 of the Act, it is noted that the sampling of a biological object for chemical-toxicological research was not carried out.

That is, the doctor could make a conclusion about the state of intoxication if the results of the determination of alcohol in the exhaled air were positive.

This provision of the Instruction contradicted the provisions of the note to Art. 12.8 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

On November 28, 2013, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation issued decision No. AKPI13-1077, in which, having considered a civil case, it decided to invalidate the first sentence of paragraph 16 of the Instructions for conducting a medical examination for the state of intoxication of a person who drives a vehicle and filling out registration form N 307 /u-05 "The act of medical examination for the state of intoxication of a person who drives a vehicle", approved by order of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation of July 14, 2003 N 308, in terms of issuing a conclusion on the state of intoxication as a result of alcohol consumption with positive results of alcohol determination in the exhaled air, without taking into account the permissible level of the presence of absolute ethyl alcohol in a concentration not exceeding the possible total measurement error, namely 0.16 milligrams per liter of exhaled air.

Thus, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation actually obliged doctors to take into account the error of the instruments and not to establish the state of intoxication at rates less than 0.16 milligrams per liter of exhaled air.

At the same time, the note speaks specifically about the concentration exceeding the possible total measurement error. The limit of this concentration is 0.16 mg/l. The law in no way justifies the use of alcohol while driving, the norm of 0.16 mg / l was introduced precisely as a protection against instrument errors.

Therefore, the error of a particular breathalyzer, with which your state of intoxication was determined, equal to 0.05 mg/l, is included in the permitted 0.16 mg/l. And since the breathalyzer already showed 0.17 mg / l with a possible error, then in relation to you, the determination of the presence of intoxication was legally justified.

Attention! The information provided in the article is current at the time of its publication.

They mean that it is still impossible to drink before the trip, and the indulgence was made for other purposes. But first things first.

After all, Russia is a country of paradoxes, and here is the planned edition of Art. 12.8 of the Code of Administrative Offenses contains a contradiction: on the one hand, it once again emphasizes the complete ban on drinking alcohol before driving (in a note), on the other hand, it introduces a new, non-zero limit of intoxication. Thus, it is proposed to consider a sober person who has less than 0.16 mg / l of alcohol in the exhaled air or less than 0.35 g / l in the blood. These limits are even slightly more liberal than those in force before 2010 - 0.15 mg/l and 0.3 g/l, respectively. Yesterday, July 2, the State Duma approved the relevant amendments in the second reading.

green ppm

Here in Canada, for example, 0.8 ppm (0.36 mg / l) is permissible, and the norm suggests that the driver can drink a little before the trip - say, a glass or two of beer. But make no mistake: the Russian approach is radically different! Our "authorized" 0.16mg/l is not really legal. Doesn't it happen? Happens. The Code and SDA still require the driver to be completely sober, and some indulgences have been made to take into account the errors of breathalyzers, and along the way, to remove the problem of the endogenous (natural) level of alcohol in the blood of some people.

The limits are justified by Rosstandart, which, on behalf of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, investigated and took into account the errors of the breathalyzers used. Moreover, he took it into account very generously, so to speak, with a margin: in general, for most professional breathalyzers, the permissible basic error is 0.02-0.04 mg / l, and, apparently, the indicated 0.16 mg / l suggests all possible risk factors. These are the so-called permissible additional errors associated with adverse weather conditions (alco-testers are sensitive to temperature and humidity), the presence of impurities in the air, the natural background of the driver, and so on.

At the same time, officials argue that even the minimum doses of alcohol in reality will exceed the indicated limit, because it is very, very small. But is it really so, we decided to check. And they came to the conclusion that maybe the officials overdid it a little in an effort to please the people ...

From personal experience

Checked on the minimum doses of alcohol. Of course, it was possible to drop motherwort on the tongue, but we understand that for most Russians, the “division price” of beer is one mug, vodka - a stack, champagne - a glass. We took three drinks and equalized them in terms of the amount of pure alcohol. Beer turned out to be 500 grams (this is slightly less than a standard bottle), vodka - 62 grams (glass), champagne - 250 grams, which approximately corresponds to a glass.

They were blown every 10 minutes for the first hour and a half and 20 minutes later. The graph of changes in alcohol in the exhaled air after a glass of champagne for a man weighing 72 kg is shown below. The peak of intoxication at 0.29 mg / l (in the air) is equivalent to 0.64 ppm (in the blood), that is, it almost doubles the limit.

The table below shows the measurement results. Do not forget that the error of the device somewhat blurs the readings, so the 0.15 mg / l “inflated” by me after beer can actually be 0.18 mg / l. Thus, even half a liter of beer brings me to the risk zone, and for myself I have already decided not to even mess with malt beers.

The rest of the drinks hit even harder, with vodka and champagne (at equal alcohol contents) being about the same: peak values ​​for three subjects, including one girl, were 0.26-0.3 mg / l, that is, far in the red zone. Here, without any error, it is clear that deprivation of rights is guaranteed. Interestingly, the lighter girl showed a smaller peak of intoxication than the man with the same dose of champagne. This is somewhat contrary to the theory, but in fact it simply shows the individuality of each organism.

Suggested sobriety zone – up to 0.16 mg/l

Note that the rate at which alcohol is eliminated from the body is much slower than the rate at which it is introduced. This is a note to those who are sure that in the 20-30 minutes that pass between blowing into the tube and examination in the narcologist's office, everything will disappear from him. In 30 minutes, about one-fifth of a beer mug will disappear (this is a rough estimate, but enough to understand).

For those who like to look for the limit, relying on various tables or the experience of experienced people, we can say with confidence - do not try. The assimilation and elimination of alcohol from the blood is an individual, multifactorial process, and the popular Internet “sobering up” tables we tested (including a professional online calculator) gave a strong discrepancy with real data - up to 30%. Often this is enough to lose rights. You should not rely on the assurances of someone that after half a liter of beer he is really sober - he may be sober, and the characteristics of your body will give you a 100% markup. Pay attention, for example, to the speed of sobering up from a bottle of beer: our operator Andrey Vinnikov did it in two and a half hours, it took me an hour more!

Subjective alcohol test

Many envied, because we spent the whole day in the kitchen, hugging a breathalyzer and a mini-bar. But in reality, there was nothing particularly funny.

Euphoria from 25 grams of alcohol in all cases lasted about 10-20 minutes, and then there was a sharp decline in mood, apathy, fatigue, and the state lasted until complete sobering up in 3.5-4 hours. This is another reason why I personally do not plan to “millimeter” even with the new sobriety limits: it is easy to miscalculate, and pleasure lasts 10 times less than drunkenness.

The degree of intoxication of 0.15-0.18 mg / l is felt: in addition to looseness and opportunistic moods, the language becomes heavier - I said the introductory text for the video from the sixth time. But God bless him, with the tongue, but looseness with a slight intoxication is very dangerous when it comes to driving. It seems that the reaction has not worsened yet, and the hands are not shaking yet, but you allow yourself more than usual. And if a colleague slaps you in the face with his hand for your swagger, then the car immediately becomes an airbag.

And do not forget that even the minimum dose of alcohol is a odor from the mouth, which is felt for four hours. And the smell is one of the reasons why the traffic police inspector can offer you an exciting journey into the world of precision instruments and confused acts.

Is ppm adequate?

And now let's get back to the government's initiative to return ppm - is it expedient? To be honest, the test gave rise to strong skepticism in me, is it necessary to return these limits at all?

We trust the Rosstandart research, but there is a feeling that taking into account all conceivable errors at the same time creates too much margin "about drinking" under normal conditions. The border of 0.16 mg / l is insidious, because it separates not five drops of Corvalol from a glass of beer, but a glass of beer from a mug or a small glass of wine from a large one. That is, it pushes unconscious elements to play the lottery with a breathalyzer.

The problem is that the average intoxication of 0.16 mg / l (we exclude rare cases) is most often not a complete abstinence from alcohol. That is, if a professional breathalyzer shows 0.15 mg / l, there is a very specific possibility that the driver drank something: maybe it was a glass of beer or a hangover. And this is contrary to the concept of a complete ban on alcohol while driving, as required by the same redacted Code of Administrative Offenses.

Opponents of "zero ppm" like to cite as an example civilized countries, like the United States and Canada, where the allowed limits are much higher. But the picture is usually presented one-sidedly. Look at the permitted levels of intoxication in different countries without cuts: the Czech Republic and Hungary, for example, live with a zero limit, while Israel uses the minimum values. With new limits, Russia falls exactly between the liberal countries and the teetotaler countries, and there is a catch in this intermediateness. Whether it is possible, or not... And for the Russian mentality, halftones are incomprehensible: we want to know exactly how much it is in grams.

Mentality generally plays an important role in the matter. Countries with a high legal limit, like Canada, have a long driving culture and a drinking culture that has been crossed at 0.8 ppm. Russia, on the other hand, does not like trifles, and we do not have a historically established tradition of one safe “drink”. Just as there are no breathalyzers in bars, there is no escalation of responsibility for drunken road accidents without victims, there are no criminal articles for strong degrees of intoxication.

Even during the alcohol test, we felt it: balancing on the minimum dose is very boring - the hand literally reaches out to pour a new portion of euphoria...

But on the other hand, the deputies have their own reasons. What is the problem with zero? In the possible error of the breathalyzer. The instructions have a convenient value of the main error, which is indicated in the inspection report and seems to serve as a reservation against fixing ultra-small values. But if you delve into metrology, there are additional errors that are caused by temperature conditions or the presence of impurities in the surrounding air.

And here comes a whole bunch of problems. During inspections, traffic police inspectors often do not bother with pedantic observance of instructions, do not measure air temperature, the content of impurities in it ... In fact, additional errors are not taken into account.

Why? In the same instructions, there are temperature errors that need to be summed up to the main ones, but sometimes these appendages are so large that they make the picture too blurry: for example, other devices with a declared error of 0.02 mg / l under certain conditions can “cross-eye” by 0, 3 mg / l, and this, you see, is the difference. At the same time, metrologists say that the additional errors are actually much less than those indicated in the instructions for extreme cases, and in fact, only a metrologist with additional equipment can calculate the real error for each specific condition.

It is clear that “zero ppm” is a possible tool for the arbitrariness of traffic police officers, but this is a slightly different topic. Because arbitrariness can be at any limit. During the experiment, from time to time, the breathalyzer gave greatly inflated readings (up to 0.5 mg / l with a real degree of intoxication of 0.08 mg / l): apparently, droplets of alcohol from the saliva of the subjects fell on the mouthpiece, removing which, it was possible to return the indicators to normal . And for arbitrariness, a microscopic drop of alcohol on the mouthpiece is enough to achieve any degree of "as if intoxicated." So if there is a goal, there will be a way. But once again I emphasize: the problem of bases has nothing to do with the limit. A banal collusion between inspectors and a medical institution will make a person arbitrarily drunk - here even the allowed 0.8 ppm will not save.

Why not think about a progressive scale of punishment? It is used in many countries, and there are many options: somewhere criminal liability appears for severe degrees of intoxication, somewhere alcohol in the blood is punishable in the event of an accident (even without victims): after drinking a small dose, you take on double the responsibility and almost always you are extreme.

For Russia, a simpler system, like progressive penalties for speeding, would probably work. The minimum degree of intoxication is a fine, for the stronger - a large fine, then deprivation of rights, and for especially gifted - criminal liability. At least, there would be unambiguity - you can’t drink while driving, period.

And the proposed limit is two-faced. After all, all this complex metrology is very difficult to convey to the masses. The very idea that it is impossible to determine the degree of intoxication below 0.16 mg / l leads people to think about allowing alcohol while driving. Conduct a survey of acquaintances: the vast majority of people perceive such initiatives in this way. And maybe it was worth not to carry out another revolution, but to strengthen control over the procedure for deprivation of rights? Invest in more accurate breathalyzers, oblige inspectors to record all measurement parameters (including air temperature), and courts to enforce laws in full accordance with their beech?

Well, yes, it's too complicated...