Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) is the amount of alcohol in your blood stream and the level of alcohol that you have in your blood stream at the time of getting arrested and tested is the one usually considered by policemen and given in court as evidence against you in case of a DUI charge. This BAC is different from the one that you may have had sometime before you got pulled over and tested. Although, policemen ask you to pull over because of drunk driving suspicions, they need to verify them by asking you to submit a Field Sobriety Test or a breath test; a urine test can also give an idea of the amount of alcohol in your system but breathalyzer tests are considered to be the most accurate. You should know that although Field Sobriety Tests are voluntary but breath tests are usually not and the refusal to take one can lead to a driver’s license revocation.

The problem with drinking and driving is that you cannot measure your BAC yourself and neither can anyone else just by looking at you. Today a number of people own personal breathalyzer devices to check their own BAC but this alcohol testing device has its own limitations, the device can start giving inaccurate results after a period of time. So the question is how can you drink and then check your Blood Alcohol Content to make sure that it is within limits? You cannot really measure you BAC in terms of number of drinks because of variations in weight, gender, age etc. but generally, consuming 14 grams of purely alcoholic drink can increase your BAC from 0.02% to 0.05% and would be diminished to 0 in about one and a half to three hours.

Many people are not aware that certain factors can somewhat control your blood alcohol content. A few tips on keeping your BAC under control are to not attend a party and drink alcohol without having some food in your stomach. It is a scientific fact that food can absorb alcohol whereas, drinking on an empty stomach can increase the content of alcohol in your body at any one time. So better have a snack or an appetizer before or during an alcoholic drink. If you do not have your personal breathalyzer device, you can roughly measure the Blood Alcohol Content by various types of calculators online. One such is provided by the University of Oklahoma Police Department that gives a rough measure of your blood alcohol based on your weight, type of drink and the hours spent drinking. Make sure that you use a reliable online calculator to measure you BAC but don’t rely on them because they provide just a rough idea of your Blood Alcohol Content.

For all those people with personal breathalyzers, you can use these devices to keep track of your Blood Alcohol Content throughout your evening of drinking. This way, you’ll know exactly when to stop drinking if you want to drive back home. Remember that your breathalyzer device needs to be accurate and that you can get pulled over for suspicions of drunk driving even if your BAC is under 0.08%. One reason for getting pulled over with a BAC of under 0.08% can be that you may be suffering from a medical condition called hypoglycemia. Symptoms of this include low blood sugar levels which can create slow reactions and unsteady driving that can be mistaken for drunk driving. Such people need to keep a better track of their food intake than many other people if they want to avoid the risk of getting pulled over for DUI.

The crux of the whole matter is that if you want to drink and are concerned about your BAC, then you need to drink carefully and responsibly. Measuring your BAC throughout the evening and keeping it under control can give you the freedom to drive back home yourself but driving with even a fairly moderate Blood Alcohol Content of under 0.08 can put you at the risk of getting pulled over. Our best advice to you is to stay on the safe side, don’t drink alcohol if you want to drive yourself and if you want to enjoy your drink, then don’t hesitate to ask for a ride home or call a cab. For more information about Blood Alcohol Concentration, drunk driving, local DUI laws and hiring a DUI lawyer or attorney, browse through MyDUIAttorney.org

Author Bio

Richard Jacobs is a chief editor since early 2007, and he currently works for NJDUILawyer.org. A website that helps you to find the right DUI lawyer, you can search for a Indiana DUI online, anytime!