What Is Blood Alcohol Concentration?

On our blog, we frequently discuss the drinking and driving problem in Austin. We always mention the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of drunken driving offenders who injure or kill innocent people. In this post, we will discuss what the BAC is and how it plays an important part in getting drunk drivers off the road.

What Is BAC?

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), BAC is the amount of alcohol in a person’s body that is measured by the weight of the alcohol in a certain volume of blood.

How Does Alcohol Get Into the Bloodstream?

The stomach and small intestines absorb alcohol through the walls. The alcohol enters the bloodstream once this happens, and it travels throughout the body and brain.

A person’s BAC can be measured 30 to 70 minutes after consuming alcohol, says the NHTSA.

What Factors Influence the BAC?

There are many factors that can influence a person’s BAC, they include:

• The number of drinks—BAC will be higher the more a person drinks.
• How quickly a person drinks—a person’s BAC will rise the faster he or she consumes alcohol.
• A person’s sex—women usually have more body fat per pound of body weight, and they have less water in their body. This means a woman’s body has more alcohol in the bloodstream, because fat cells do not absorb it as quickly as other cells.
• A person’s weight—the more a person weighs the more water he or she has in his or her body; more water in the body helps dilute alcohol, which can help lower the BAC.
• Food—if a person has food in his or her stomach, the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream will slow down.

Did You Know? HowStuffWorks says the alcohol found in alcoholic beverages is ethyl alcohol also known as ethanol.

The Law Offices of Aaron Allison – Austin Personal Injury Attorney

Source: http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nti/pdf/809844-TheABCsOfBAC.pdf