The Procedure

When your suspected of DWI you’ll be arrested and brought to the police station. The first stop is booking then the Intoxilyzer room. At this point, the cop will read a form what’s called the DIC-24. This form tells you that you have two options- either blow into the machine and if you BAC is above .08 you’ll receive a driver’s license suspension of 90 days, or refuse to blow in the machine (as you should) – your license is not necessarily suspended for 180 days. You have the right to hearing a prior to your drivers license suspension. DO NOT LET THIS FORM FOOL OR INTIMIDATE YOU! After the form is read you’ll be asked to provide a sample of blood or breath. If you decide to give a breath sample (as you NEVER should), you’ll undergo a 15 minute observation period mandated by the state of Texas.

The fifteen minute observation period is critical. During this period, the cop will watch you to ensure that you don’t put anything in your mouth, don’t belch or regurgitate. After the fifteen minute observation period and the machine is warmed up and ready to go, you’ll be told to blow into the machine- normally ten seconds. The machine will make a beeping sound as you blow into it. After this contraption has your breath, it will make loud humming noises. This gizmo will then clear the chamber with an air blank. Then, the machine checks itself, The cop will then have you provide a second sample of breath. The machine takes that reading and then prints the results of blow 1, the test sample, and then blow 2 on a slip of paper.

If your lowest sample is above .08 – you’ve just given the state a wealth of evidence to use against you at trial. If you blow under .08 – that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook and going home. If for example you blew .079 – the state can prove intoxication using a voodoo science called “retrograde extrapolation”. Additionally, the state can still prove intoxication through the loss of normal use or mental or physical faculties. The only positive to blowing under an .08 is that the state can’t say you were trying to hide something. Keep in mind, when they ask you to blow, YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR DWI! They can’t un-arrest you, the arrest has already occurred.

MARGIN OF ERROR | The machine does a check on itself with every test. This test samples is put into the machine with a solution with a known alcohol concentration. This test sample must be within .01 of the known concentration. For example, if the machines test solution is known to be at .08- the machine says that it is working if a sample of air taken from the solution is either .09 or .07. Thus, the machine has a rate of error on a known sample of roughly 25%. This is especially troubling given that human are not closed systems. Where the test sample is kept at a constant temperature, the temperature of the human body constantly changes. The test sample doesn’t undergo any chemical changes whereas a human body constantly undergoes chemical changes. Anyone can see the problem here. This "fudge factor"  could be the difference between intoxicated and not intoxicated

The subject samples must be within .02 of each other for a “valid” test results (notice I didn’t say accurate.) For example, if your first sample is .09 and your second sample is .071 a valid (not accurate) test has occurred. Your official BAC at this point is .079 (the lowest score is always used to give the defendant the benefit of the doubt) Note how on the two test samples provided by the suspect, the allowable “fudge factor” is .02! That’s double the fudge factor of the known test sample. That’s a rate of error double of the known test sample.

BLOOD TO BREATH RATIO | The machine assumes the every person exchanges alcohol from the breath to the blood at the same rate. Naturally, bigger folks have more blood than smaller people do. Bigger people’s blood to breath ratio will be different than smaller people. Imagine if the state put a ban on shoe sizes, and the state says- the only size shoe produced in Texas is a 8 ½ men shoe, because that is the average shoe size. This is essentially what the intoxilyzer does. It assumes everyone’s blood to breath ratio is the same. Some people eliminate alcohol in the blood at different rates than others. It is absolutely absurd to assume this critical piece of breath testing.

THE MACHINE IS FOOLED BY OTHER SUBSTANCES | As noted before, the machine measures light, not alcohol. There are literally thousands of different molecular compounds that share the bonds the machine is looking for. Literally any compounds that share the bonds the machine is looking for. Literally any compound with a CH3-CHBAC-OH molecule attached to it will register as alcohol. There are thousands of these compounds!!!! Paint thinners, gasoline, and acetone are only a few that will fool the machine.

TEMPERATURE | Temperature is critical! As molecules heat up, they separate. Imagine putting in chocolate chip cookies made from dough into the oven. You can’t really smell the cookies until they’ve been baked. As the temperature rises, molecules begin to separate and disperse into the air. Temperature is critical in breath testing. The machine assumes that your breath is four degrees lower than normal body temperature. That is, the machine assumes your breath is that of a dead person. Colder breath concentrates alcohol and therefore, a higher result occurs.

MOUTH ALCOHOL | Notice the state mandates at 15 minute observation period prior to a blow. The reason is MOUTH ALCOHOL. Alcohol can be trapped in the mouth in a variety of way. Dentures, jewelry, cavities, chewing tobacco, bread caught in the teeth, belching and regurgitation are only a few ways alcohol can be trapped in the mouth. The problem with mouth alcohol is that PURE alcohol is being blown into the machine without the benefit of your body’s filter. That is, the machine assumes that all the alcohol in the chamber has already run the complete course through your body. Naturally, the mouth alcohol is at a significantly higher than concentration than breath alcohol transferred from blood. Most of the time, breath test operators don’t explain the procedure of the purpose of the 15 minute observation period. If a person silently belches or regurgitates, the operator doesn’t know, and begins an invalid test. The operator will never tell you to inform him if you silently burp or regurgitate. If you do silently burp or regurgitate- the 15 minute observation period is invalid, and a new 15 minute observation must begin.

HEALTH FACTORS | Diabetes and reflux disease can cause an elevated BAC. Diabetics naturally produce acetone, which fools the machine. The bad part about being diabetic, is that acetone creates an alcohol like odor that the cop can smell. Additionally, diabetics in diabetic shock are often mistaken for intoxicated, because of erratic driving behavior, the smell of acetone and a false reading of the machine. Reflux disease also creates false positives because as stomach acid containing alcohol comes up the esophagus, that air is then put into the mouth. The issue of mouth alcohol comes significantly into play.

WHY YOU NEVER BLOW IN THIS CONTRAPTION

The purpose of this article is not to say- don’t blow into the machine if you know you’ve been drinking. The purpose of this article is to inform the public of the flaws of this machine and why a result from this machine MUST be questioned. Blowing into this machine is literally taking a crap shoot. You never know what the results will be or whether or not the results are valid. The results are “close enough for government work” at best. Blowing into this machine is the equivalent to you digging your own grave. DO NOT LET THIS MACHINE DETERMINE YOUR FUTURE!

DO NOT worry about the drivers license suspension, you’ll have the opportunity for an ALR hearing prior to your license being suspended. Additionally, you will likely qualify for an occupational license, allowing you to drive 12 hours per day. The cop will threaten you or try to rationalize why its in your best interest to blow. DO NOT BE INTIMIDATED.

To win you DWI breath test case, you need an attorney who knows the ins and outs of this machine. The Dog has studied extensively on this machine and can sniff out the bugs associated with it.

How it Works

When a person drinks alcohol, the alcohol enters the stomach and eventually into the intestines. When the alcohol enters the small intestine, the blood absorbs the alcohol into the bloodstream. Once in the blood, the elimination process is already underway. As your blood travels to your lungs to absorb oxygen and rid itself of carbon dioxide alcohol eliminates itself into the breath in the alveolar sacs in your lungs. This change is equivalent of the Henry’s Law principle.

The Intoxilyzer 5000 doesn’t detect alcohol per se. Actually, it measures energy loss. When a test subject blows into the machine, the breath enters a heated tube, and then enters a chamber. On one end of the chamber is an infra-red light. On the other end of the chamber is a light sensor. Molecular bonds in alcohol molecules (CH3CHBAC-OH) absorbs this wave of infra-red light. Since the machine does some calculations (it is important to note the only people who know what calculations this machine does is CMI- the manufactured of the machine) and a result prints out on a slip of paper.

To put it another way- imagine a dark room with a flashlight. If a person blows cigarette smoke through the beam of light, you’ll notice a shadow on the wall where the light fixates itself. The light on the wall is less light than what’s emitted from the flashlight. That loss of light blocked by the smoke would be alcohol.