The Problem of Mouth Alcohol in Breath Alcohol Testing

Undetected mouth alcohol can falsely elevate a breath test.

In breath alcohol testing, the term “mouth alcohol” is the name for the insidious form of alcohol that can falsely elevate a person’s breath alcohol reading. It can come from two sources: the unabsorbed alcohol in a person’s stomach refluxing into the oral cavity or from putting something in the mouth that contains alcohol.

This type of breath sample con…