Mac,

Here's something you've probably seen.

Jon

J Stud Alcohol 1999 May;60(3):400-6



The drunkest drinking driver in Sweden: blood alcohol concentration
0.545% w/v.


Jones AW


Department of Forensic Toxicology, University Hospital, Linkoping,
Sweden.


OBJECTIVE: This article examined drinking drivers (N = 81) who had
unusually high blood alcohol concentrations (BAC > or = 0.400% w/v)
when apprehended. These drinking drivers were investigated in relation
to age, gender, weekday and time of day of arrest, amount of alcohol in
the body and the rate of disappearance of alcohol from the blood.
METHOD: The concentration of ethanol in whole blood was determined in
triplicate by headspace gas chromatography and the rate of
disappearance of ethanol (burn-off rate) was calculated when two blood
specimens were taken about 1 hour apart (mean = 65 minutes, range =
33-110 minutes). RESULTS: Seven of the 81 drunk drivers were women (9%)
with a mean age of 40 years (range = 29-52 years) and 74 were men (91%)
with a mean age of 44 years (range = 28-68 years). The mean, median and
range of BACs for the women were 0.422% w/v, 0.413% w/v and
0.403-0.451% w/v, compared with BACs of 0.425% w/v, 0.416% w/v and
0.400-0.545% w/v for the men respectively (p > .05). The BAC was not
dependent on subjects' age (F = 1.04, 7/73 df, p > .05) nor the weekday
when they were apprehended (F = 1.62, 6/74 df, p > .05). Most drunk
drivers (49%) were apprehended between 12 noon and 6 PM, 40% were
involved in traffic accidents and 17% did not hold a valid driving
license. The mean (+/-SD) disappearance rate of ethanol from blood was
0.023% +/- 0.01% w/v per hour (N = 26), with a range of 0.013 to 0.061%
w/v per hour. CONCLUSIONS: Drinking alcohol to reach a BAC of 0.400%
w/v or more and attempting to drive a motor vehicle indicates an
exceptionally high cellular tolerance to the impairment caused by this
drug. The alcohol burn-off rate was relatively high in these heavy
drinkers (mean = 0.023% w/v per hour), which probably reflects the
development of metabolic tolerance as well.



Matthew Harris

Department of Anatomy

Program in Cellular and Molecular Biology

University of Wisconsin

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