Can
Body Temperature Affect Breathalyzer Results?
Information
courtesy of Lawrence Taylor - DUIblog
As
I have said in earlier posts, law enforcement investigation techniques
depend largely upon the fictitious premise that all humans are physiologically
identical (see "Convicting the Average DUI Suspect").
Without that presumption, field sobriety and breath alcohol tests
would not be possible.
I have
previously discussed many examples of physiological differences
-- from person to person and within one person from moment to moment
-- which will directly alter breath or blood alcohol testing (see,
for example, "Diabetes and the Counterfeit DUI", "GERD,
Acid Reflux and False Breathalyzer Results" and "The Effect
of Anemia on Breath Tests"). Yet another example of variability
is body temperature.
Put
simply, an individual's body temperature will have a direct effect
on the results of a breath test.
The
effects of changes in body temeprature from the norm of 98.6 degrees
on breath testing has been discussed in an article entitled "Body
Temperature and the Breathalyzer Boobytrap", 721 Michigan Bar
Journal (September 1982). If because of illness, for example, the
body temperature is elevated by only 1 degree Centrigrade (1.8 degrees
Fahrenheit), the 1:2100 breath-to-blood partition ratio will be
affected so as to produce a 7 percent higher test result. Higher
body temperatures will, of course, result in greater errors.
Dr.
Michael Hlastala, Professor of Physiology, Biophysics and Medicine
at the University of Washington, confirms this effect. In an article
entitled "Physiological Errors Associated with Alcohol Breath
Testing", 9(6) The Champion 18 (1985), he comments that even
the average body temperature of a normal, healthy person "may
vary by as much as 1 degree Centigrade above or below the normal
mean value of 37 degrees Centigrade -- or 1.8 degrees from the mean
value of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit". Not only can the normal
mean body temperature of an individual vary from that of other persons,
but the "temperature of any individual may vary from time to
time during the day by as much as 1 degree Centigrade".
|
