For quite awhile now DUI attorneys and law enforcement have argued about the reliability of DUI analyzing devices. DUI attorneys have pleaded over and over again that devices are indeed unreliable. They claim that these devices can find other compounds in the body and mistake them for ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, a compound found in alcoholic drinks. A driver could register as having a high blood alcohol content (B.A.C.), however, in reality there is a small amount, if any at all, ethanol in the system. DUI attorneys have discovered that these breath test machines are not as reliable or accurate as blood tests. What's interesting though is that these devices have become the standard instruments used by the courts in finding out whether or not a person has been drunk driving.

What most people don't realize is that breath test machines haven't been designed to detect the molecule of ethyl alcohol. Most breathalyzer tests can only discover a tiny part of that molecule. The breath test machines assume that the methyl group is related to the ethyl alcohol compound. Imagine all the different types of compounds in a person's body. The possibility of the breath test device mistaking a combination of these compounds as ethyl alcohol is pretty high.

Researchers have discovered that 70 to 80 percent of the compounds in a person's body do contain methyl groups. The prosecution must prove beyond a doubt that ethyl alcohol was in the body at the time of the breath test in order for a drunk driver to be prosecuted. Researchers have also concluded that breath alcohol analysis is not proof enough to convict someone of a DUI.

Other studies have been done to see if breath test machines are as conclusive as blood tests. A study was conducted in which members of the toxicology section of the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene. These researchers found that only 33% of the breath test results matched the corresponding blood tests. What makes this study really interesting is that in 11 of the cases, the drunk driving offender was found to be drunk using one of the tests even though the other tests showed that they were not drunk.

The bottom line here is: Machines are only as perfect as the humans who have created them and we shouldn't depend on them for all the answers. We have to remember that breath test machines are run by computers and we all know that computers can often break down or have technical issues.

Maria Palma is a freelance writer committed to helping people find San Diego DUI lawyers. Get help with your DUI in San Diego.