hello guys,
i am an avid vaper. im 19 years old from the US, i love RDA's with mechs, love blowin clouds, love not smoking analogs.
on saturday night, i was driving back from santa barbara with my friends at 2:00 pm dripping a menthol juice from a local company. I was pulled over by a trainee chp officer and his teacher because i was speeding (75 mph on a 65 at 2:00 am).
the officer told me to step out of the car because he smelled "alcohol". He asked me to do a few testes, i passed them all.
then i took a brethalizer test. it came up as a "BAC" of 0.01 (yep 0.01, not 0.10). he asked me why i lied to him and i told him (truthfully) that i did not drink anything and that i was the designated driver.
he towed my car, gave me a dui ticket and a speeding ticket and i was fully cooperative throughout the whole process.
i did some research and found out that mint gum, or breath mints, toothpaste, mouthwash, can all throw off a breathalizer test by 0.12 (thats right, not 0.012.....but 0.12).
how could the test be thrown off? It said that menthol and alchohol are read the same exact way with the chp standard issue breathalizer.
i dont brush my teeth (jk), i brushed and used mouthwash about 5 hours before i was pulled over, so this was too long ago to be a factor.
IT WAS THE MENTHOL JUICE!!! i was vapin this stuff all day! shure enough, i tested my friend's parent's breathalizer and i blew a 0.10% "bac" about a minute after exhaling the vapor. a 0.09% "bac" about 15 minutes after exhaling the menthol vape. and a 0.01 after an hour!
i know that this breathalizer was not as accurate as the police issue, but all of the chemistry makes sence to show that the police issued breathalizer would come up with the same results under the same conditions.
When the user exhales into a breathalyzer, any ethanol present in their breath is oxidized to acedic acid at the anode:
CH3CH2OH(g) + H2O(l) → CH3CO2H(l) + 4H+(aq) + 4e-
At the cathode, atmospheric oxygen is reduced:
O2(g) + 4H+(aq) + 4e- → 2H2O(l)
The overall reaction is the oxidation of ethanol to acetic acid and water.
CH3CH2OH(l) + O2(g) → CH3COOH(l) + H2O(l)
The electric current produced by this reaction is measured by a microprocessor, and displayed as an approximation of overall "bac"
People who have drunk alcohol will release special gases. It will approach silica gel of strong oxidizing agent K2Cr2O7. If the released gas contains ethanol (CH3CH2OH) steam, ethanol will be oxidized by chromium trioxide to form acetaldehyde. Meanwhile, CrO3 is restored as acetic acid [CH3COOH]
this means that both acetone and ethanol will be detected from police issued infared brethalyzer tests. if you have been dieting (below recomended daily caloric intake) your breathalyzer detected "bac" can be up to aproximatley 0.06 daily because of the acetone let out of your lungs after your body burns fat.
this also means that any substance containing ethanol will show up on a brethalyzer. this can be seen in gum, breath mints, and mouthwash. (they even showed this on the shows "Manswers" and "Mythbusters"). this includes mentholated ejuices that contain ethanol.
i was vaping AzureVaping's "smooth". their menthol flavors are created from menthol crystals dissolved in ethanol. this makes complete sence.
This is not a problem for people in australia because they give a 20% tolerance and recognize the inacuracy of these tests. 23% of people get an inacurate "bac" reading from breathalyzers.
THIS IS JUST A WARNING GUYS. BE READY TO DEFEND YOURSELF IN THIS SITUATION. i will appear in court with scientific evidence on the 6th of december.