Scientific Definitions
"0.01" Blood alcohol content is the hundredth decimal part of the one thousandth part of a liter. (Please note that this "0.01" is measured in permille and not percentage as the "0.1" example in introduction and numbers in 1 Effects at different levels.)
In digesting these numbers it must be remembered that one milliliter is the thousandth part of a liter. Therefore 1% of a milliliter is 0.00001-Liter. Expressing blood-alcohol concentration as "0.01" is naming the hundredth part of a thousandth part.
As final example, a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08, being the 0.08 "part" of a milliliter (ITSELF the thousandth part of a Liter) therefore names an absolute blood-alcohol volume of 0.00008-Liter (within every liter of blood).
Each country or state may define BAC differently. For example, the state of California in the United States legally defines BAC as a ratio of grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood, which is equal to grams of alcohol per deciliter of blood.
Since measurement must be accurate and inexpensive, several measurement techniques are used as proxies to approximate the true parts per million measure. Some of the most common are listed here: (1) Mass of alcohol per volume of exhaled breath (for example, 0.38 mg/L; see also breath gas analysis), (2) Mass per volume of blood in the body (for example, 0.08 g/dL), and (3) Mass of alcohol per mass of the body (for example, 0.0013 g/Kg).
The number of alcoholic beverages (drinks) consumed is often a poor measure of blood alcohol content because of variations in sex, body weight, and body fat.
An ethanol level of 0.10% is equal to 22 mmol/l or 100 mg/dl of blood alcohol. This same 0.10% BAC also equates to 0.10 g/dL of blood alcohol or 0.10 g/210L of exhaled breath alcohol or 0.476 mg/L of exhaled breath alcohol. Likewise, 0.10 mg/L of exhaled breath alcohol converts to 0.02% BAC, 0.022 g/dL of blood alcohol or 0.022 g/210L of exhaled breath alcohol.
Read more about this topic: Blood Alcohol Content
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