In almost every driving school, they try to immediately inform you of what legislation defines the permissible ppm, and what dangers await the driver if he decides to drive while intoxicated. However, some owners of their own vehicles quite often ask questions about whether you can drink a little, and then get behind the wheel and not be afraid to be caught in this by the traffic police.
Different countries provide different penalties for the fact that a person does not know the allowed per mille and, therefore, drives the car while intoxicated, starting from insignificant monetary fines and ending with real imprisonment. For this reason, you must always know the features of the current legislation and understand how to act in various situations.
What it is?
In the overwhelming majority of cases, with the onset of summer, the general statistics of violations, which relate to the fact that the allowed ppm in the blood of drivers is exceeded, is constantly growing, and this is especially affected by the vacation season, as well as regular trips to the country. It is also worth noting that some car owners quite often drive in the summer, but did not manage to recover from the consequences of the previous walk.
Permitted ppm is the specific alcohol content that is allowed in the driver’s blood. In this case, the concentration is determined blood alcohol and one ppm is 1 milliliter of pure alcohol. In practice, even this content is an indicator that a person has a fairly strong degree of intoxication, and he is strictly forbidden to drive.
Features of the law
In accordance with the laws, the allowed per mille is currently 0.16, and any evidence above is already a violation. In other words, if such indicators were found in the driver, then he can officially be considered drunk and, accordingly, a full-fledged violator of the law.
After the introduction of such a norm, a rather large number of disputes arose among car owners, which ultimately divided into two camps. The first began to say that even such a norm is quite large, and in the end, it is generally necessary to introduce an “absolute” zero, that is, the driver should not even have a hundredth part of a ppm in the blood. However, in fact, do not forget that at the moment the measure is almost approximate to this, because the number of ppm allowed at the moment is very close to the amount of alcohol that can be produced by the body of even a non-drinking person. Many, of course, prefer not to notice these arguments.
In fact, even kefir, kvass, or certain medicines drunk in the morning can ultimately make the blood alcohol concentration higher than what is allowed per mille at the moment.
Among other things, for a long time there was talk about the fact that 0.16 is an approximate error of modern breathalyzers, and for this reason, even if the sober-looking driver's indicators exceeded this value, an additional medical examination should be required.
How does the body work?
In fact, during the testing process, such an averaging of alcohol readings cannot be carried out.There are a fairly large number of factors that somehow affect these indications, starting from the weight of a person and ending with his emotional state. In this case, you can simply translate the spatial number 0.16 into a measure that is extremely understandable to everyone. For example, you can roughly understand that a healthy middle-aged man with a weight of about 75 kilograms cannot drink more than half a bottle of light weak beer, because otherwise the breathalyzer will begin to show a higher result.
Again, many began to be indignant about this, because in fact half a bottle of light weak beer for the overwhelming majority of men is an almost imperceptible dose, but even in this case there will already be a direct violation of the current legislation, because the allowed amount of per mille is one for all of us . It is for this reason that each person must decide for himself whether he should walk along this line or whether it is better to completely exclude alcohol during trips.
The rule of one ppm
As you can see, the concentration of alcohol in human blood is measured in fairly small units. By ear, the phrase “only 1 ppm” may seem completely harmless, but in practice, if you look at the allowed amount of ppm, it turns out that this is a very large concentration.
For example, a half-liter bottle of vodka has 200 milliliters of absolutely pure alcohol, and if in this case we consider the same average man, then with a weight of about 75 kilograms the use of a whole such bottle will ultimately force the breathalyzer to produce results at 2.5 ppm. But in this case it is already really possible to understand, because a full-fledged bottle of vodka, drunk on its own, can have a very serious effect and is already classified as heavy intoxication. Moreover, if we move away from how much the permissible norm per mille is, then it is worth noting the fact that the border of more than two bottles (5-6 p) is already considered a lethal dose for one person.
Of course, all these calculations are very conditional, and in this case we are not even talking about the errors of breathalyzers.
What influences this?
The time that pure alcohol leaves the body, the strength of its effect, and the degree of intoxication depends on a huge number of factors, including:
- volume of drink;
- strength of drinks;
- weight of a person;
- floor;
- health status;
- the degree of fullness of the stomach at the time of drinking;
- the amount of food consumed after drinking;
- the quality of the snack used.
At the same time, one must correctly understand that in different countries they treat drunk driving completely differently, and not only individual norms are established, which can vary greatly among themselves, but also a variety of punishment options. If in one state for the fact that a person drives a car while intoxicated, he may just initially receive an oral warning, then in another country he faces a rather serious prison term for this, and it can be absolutely unimportant here whether he caused the accident or just decided to overtake the car ten meters from his home.
It is worth noting that the law on the introduction of the norm of 0.16 ppm in Russia was adopted in 2013, and before that they could completely deprive the right to drive a vehicle even if a person drove a car with a lower content of it in his blood. However, after the entry into force of this law, all people whose rights were taken away because their blood alcohol content was less than 0.16 ppm were found not guilty and returned the documents.
A bottle of beer
For many readers, these figures may not say anything (especially to those who have never driven their own car and never felt the feeling when one bottle of beer in the end turns out to be two ppm), but in practice the permitted ppm of alcohol at the wheel can not exceed from what kind of drinks you were drinking. Indeed, different types of alcohol differ in completely different results, and, as mentioned above, for example, in the theory of 0.16, this is about half a bottle of extremely low-alcohol beer.Thus, considering how much ppm is allowed in Russia, we can say that drivers can drink this particular amount of alcohol.
In this case, before you even drink a small glass and get behind the wheel, you need to consider several pretty important points:
- In the predominant majority of cases, such examples consider exclusively light beer, although different brands can produce drinks that give completely different results. At the same time, it is worth noting that if a person drank some strong varieties and it was dark beer, then, for example, even after one bottle of a nine-degree drink, the permitted ppm of alcohol can be exceeded so much that they can even be accused of drinking vodka.
- The concentration of alcohol in the blood decreases over time, therefore, passing the test on the breathalyzer after five minutes, you will get completely different results than when checking after about two hours.
Among other things, do not forget that the breathalyzer data is very, very conditional. Thus, we can say that one bottle of beer may contain 0.3 ppm, but this is nothing more than a theory.
Wine
If we talk about wine, then in this case the issue is somewhat simpler, since the total number of ppm in this case depends on the degree, and according to the calculations, a standard bottle of 0.7 L with a strength of 12% contains approximately 12 grams of alcohol, i.e. approximately 0.7 ppm. Thus, if you want to take alcohol, but are afraid to violate the boundaries of how many ppm is allowed while driving, you can drink quite a bit of wine.
Vodka
This question interests many people, and interest in this case is shown not only in the number of ppm, but also in how quickly alcohol can be removed from the body.
Approximately 0.55 ppm (40 grams of ethyl alcohol) is produced per 100 grams of vodka. However, in this case, it is also not recommended to trust any particular source or table, because there are such situations that after drinking 200 grams on the tester then only 0.7 p was shown, that is, the allowed ppm behind the wheel were exceeded, but not so much to be considered a serious offense.
About blood alcohol
Many do not always understand why blood alcohol and driving are incompatible things, and how it causes changes in the body.
Initially, it is worth noting the fact that alcohol itself is a substance that is absolutely a feeling for the human body, and therefore the state of intoxication is completely unusual for a person. Even 50 grams of vodka can have an effect on the human psyche, and even if it may not be so noticeable from the outside, the brain can malfunction. It is for this reason that the allowed ppm in Russia is so low, even though in most other countries this issue is taken less seriously.
For drivers, such manifestations are especially dangerous because they include:
- lack of coordination;
- loss of orientation;
- poorer balance;
- decreased attention and memory;
- significant deterioration in logical thinking and quick wit;
- hearing loss.
All these consequences ultimately somehow affect the way a person will behave on the road. At the same time, do not forget that the car itself is a means of increased danger, and ultimately, due to improper actions, the driver can cause harm not only to himself, but also to others.
How much can I drink?
Despite the fact that warnings are constantly being issued, and various accidents caused by drunk drivers are regularly described in the media, some car owners still try to drink a little and think that they do not exceed the allowed ppm in the blood.
At the same time, you need to correctly understand how much you can drink, and most often many emphasize the word "how much", without even thinking about whether it is possible in principle.
Legislatively, a person has a certain framework that can limit him, but in fact, there is no clear answer to the question “whether to drink while driving”, and in this case, everyone can answer it independently, knowing the characteristics of their body, and what else more importantly, the so-called "sense of proportion."
Theoretically, everyone can afford to drink a bottle of light beer, because such a bottle does not even affect the external behavior. In good circumstances, you can even completely kill the smell of beer, and after about 40 minutes, it will completely disappear by itself. However, if you are still stopped on the road and the inspector does not smell alcohol, then the breathalyzer can determine your increased concentration, and this risk will be around the next two hours.
Such reasoning is not at all a reason for everyone to drink a little before the trip, and even a few sips with certain factors can make the devices begin to show 1-2 ppm.
Among other things, it is worth considering such a thing as the absorption of alcohol. Many people think that alcohol disappears over time, and every hour it’s becoming more difficult to convince the driver that he drank, but in fact, breathalyzers determine even those vapors that leave the lungs, because alcohol is absorbed by the walls of the stomach and doesn’t enter only in the blood, but also in other organs.
All this needs to be known and remembered if you do not want to lose your rights once, possibly even being absolutely sober.
