With New Year’s Eve quickly approaching, drunk driving takes center stage in our culture. Many people will be hitting the bars, parties, and other festivities to ring in the New Year, reveling in the spirit of the season. When the clock strikes Midnight, the holiday is crowned with a traditional Champagne toast and the crowds begin to disperse onto the streets. At this moment, the hazards of drunk driving begin to settle into reality for both sober and intoxicated individuals embarking on their journey home.
With the beaconing of every New Year, new tales are spun by “Spirited Scholars” on how to outsmart the police during a DUI stop. The stories range from fantastical ideas of using a penny to trick the breath test, to changing your breathing pattern when submitting an air sample into the machine. The person may tell you stories of friends who mastered these great feats during a police stop or add some quasi-scientific rationale to the magical tale. However enticing the storyteller may seem, these myths lose their majesty on a real DUI stop as quickly as the evening loses its’ luster when the bar flips on their lights at last call. To avoid getting lured by the glittery fables, here is the truth behind common breathalyzer myths.
Myth #1. The “Underdog” Fantasy: If you place a penny in your mouth, it will lower your breath test score. This myth is reminiscent of the old cartoon character, Underdog, who unleashed his superpowers by swallowing a magical pill that he kept inside a ring on this hand. Along the same lines, a popular urban legend has developed to claim that placing a penny in your mouth will lower your breath test score.
As Underdog’s magical pill was fiction, so is the tale of the “Penny in your Wallet.” Despite many variations of this myth, a penny will not restore you back to a state of instant sobriety irrespective if you hold it under your tongue, suck on it, or substitute any other form of currency.
The origin of this myth was the belief that the high copper concentration in pennies would dilute the alcohol content in breathalyzer result. This belief is not grounded in any valid scientific principle. Further, pennies have been composed of 97.5% zinc since the 1980s. So, whether you have a copper or a zinc penny in your mouth, it will not lower your breath test score.
Myth #2. A Touch of Mint: If you use a mint, chew gum, or breath spray, it will lower the score on the breathalyzer. Although this may disguise the smell of alcohol to the officer, the use of breath cleansers will not help achieve a favorable breath test score. Gums, mints, and sprays simply mask the odor of alcohol on the breath. They do not improve your BAC score or effect the chemical reactions used to determine if alcohol is present. In contrast, some breath fresheners can actually increase the amount of alcohol registered. The cleanser may actually contain alcohol.
Myth #3. Mouthwash: The use of mouthwash will confuse the breathalyzer test. Mouthwash will not “clean” the alcohol from your mouth or confuse the breath test. In fact, many mouthwash brands contain alcohol. As such, using mouthwash prior to submitting to a breath test can actually increase your breathalyzer score.
Myth #4. Role-Playing: If you put your mouth on the tube and pretend to submit a breath sample, you will obtain a low breath test reading. Many people try to defeat a breath test by accepting the mouthpiece, pretending to provide a breath sample, while, in reality, holding their breath. The belief is that holding your breath will cause the machine to register a clean sample.
This myth will not improve your breath test. The breathalyzer analyzes the amount of breath being taken in and alerts the officer if there is an insufficient air sample. In many states, officers can consider this a refusal and additional penalties may arise as a result.
Myth #5. Zima Beer: The breathalyzer cannot detect the “Zima” brand of Beer. With the advent of Zima’s “clear beer,” a new myth arose regarding breath tests. The myth is that the alcohol in Zima cannot be detected in breath tests because it does not leave a strong odor of alcohol on a person’s breath. However, Zima contains alcohol just like any other regular beer – The breath test machine will detect the alcohol content.
As with all myths, they don’t fare well when faced with reality. Instead of inventing new ways to “trick the breathalyzer,” the best solution is to have a realistic plan for transportation prior to consuming alcohol.
