Glossary

Blood Test

If the police have carried out a roadside breathalyser test on you which you have failed, they will take you to the local station for a blood test which will more accurately confirm the result.

BAC

This standard for Breath/Blood Alcohol Content and is a measure of how much alcohol is diluted in your body. It is expressed as a standard percentage. For example: 0.08% or as a percentage per 1000 - 0.8% as in the case of the UK limits.

Breathalyser

Also known as a Breathalyzer by the Americans, this is the term given to a machine that by analysing a sample of your breath can give you an indication of the Blood/Alcohol content in your body and therefore tell to what degree you are inebriated and how your judgement maybe imparted making you unfit to drive or operate machinery.

Drink Drive Limit

This is the limit you are deemed safe to drive a car under. This varies between countries and is set by their respective governments.

Unit (of Alcohol)

The old definition that 1 unit is 1 glass of wine or half a pint of beer is no longer accurate. This is because these generalisations are based on the wine having 8% ABV and the glass holding 125ml and the beer being 3% ABV which is no longer common. A unit is actually 8g or 10mls of pure alcohol. The best way to know how much you are drinking is to work out the number of units. To do this you multiply the strength of the drink (%ABV) by the amount of liquid in mls then dividing by 1000.