Citation

Ives G, Sbaffi L, Bath PA. Med. Leg. J. 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Medico-Legal Society, Publisher SAGE Publications)

DOI

10.1177/00258172231178419

PMID

37309804

Abstract

People failing to give a specimen of breath at a police station are assumed to be deliberately obstructive and are charged with Failure to Provide under the Road Traffic Act 1988. However, spirometry records of 281,210 healthy individuals from UK BioBank showed that a significant minority cannot use existing evidential breath analysis machines. Women were three times more likely to be unable to use them than men (1.64% vs 0.54%) with the risk rising with age six-fold from those in their 40s (0.43%) to 2.7% in their 70s, with women more affected (0.65% to 3.8%). Short stature was a further risk factor: 2.6% of men and 3.8% of women below the 2(nd) percentile of height could not use the current machines, with almost one in ten elderly, short women unable to do so, while smokers aged 50+ were twice as likely as non-smokers of the same age to be unable to provide breath specimens.

Language: en

Keywords

Breath alcohol; breathalyser; Failure to Provide; Intoxilyzer; spirometry