New York Breath Test

Various types of breath testing machines (commonly called “breathalyzers” by the lay public), are used to measure a person’s blood alcohol content (BAC) based on indirectly measuring a sample of breath. These tests are the most commonly used techniques to establish BAC. However, breath testing machines are often inaccurate.

Most experts in the field believe breath testing techniques and the assumptions they depend upon, as they are currently administered in New York State, are inherently inaccurate. Occasionally, courts have thrown out breath test results because of their unreliability.

False readings can and often do occur. For example, cough syrup, mouth washes, and breath sprays can produce false readings. Further, chemicals present in a person’s body that resemble ethyl alcohol can influence the test result. Modern machines have attempted to control against these phenomena, but their reliability is questionable.

Even body temperature can affect the reading. The machines are calibrated as if each subject blowing into the machine possesses a certain body temperature. However, scientific evidence has shown that any subject’s body temperature varies several degrees during any given day, (e.g., depending on the time of day and the level of emotional and/or physical stress the subject is under) and a sick subject’s body temperature could be elevated as a result of a fever.

These machines are complicated and require a certain level of maintenance to ensure they operate properly. Further, police officers are not always properly trained or informed about the BAC machines. They also sometimes bypass or ignore proper protocols that are put in place to control some of the environmental and physiological variables that can produce inaccurate test results.

If your BAC breath test produced a result beyond the legal limit, or a result that you feel is unreasonably high under the circumstances, The DWI Guy and his team of attorneys can help determine if, or the extent to which, your breath test can be used as valid evidence against you in court.