Reader’s Question:

Is it true that acid reflux or heartburn can skew the preliminary breath test? We wanna know if we can use this as a defense because my husband has been arrested for DUI here in Ellicott City, Maryland.

Queenie

Ellicott City, MD

Yes, you can use that as a defense for your husband’s DUI charge in Ellicott City, Maryland. People arrested for DUI who are suffering from heartburn or acid reflux can cause an inaccurate breath test results. Any alcohol in the stomach can be forced back into the person’s mouth causing a high reading with acid reflux. The breath analyzer machines are designed to test the level of alcohol in a person’s breath in the lungs where oxygen is exchanged into the blood and CO2 is exchanged into the breath.

The breath test is supposed to measure the blood alcohol level which is based on the off gassing CO2 from the blood. It can be simply stated that acid reflux can put large amounts of alcohol into a person’s mouth causing the breath sample to register high on the test for alcohol even though that percentage of alcohol is not present in the blood.

Tags: drunk driving laws, DUI, DUI advice, DUI lawyer