Dubowski, Absorption, Distribution and Elimination of Alcohol: Highway Safety Aspects, 10 Journal of Studies on Alcohol Supp. 98 (1985)
Kevin Trombold

Kurt Dubowski, Ph.D. of the Department of Medicine and Toxicology Laboratories, University of Oklahoma, is possibly the most published and influential scientist in the country in the field of breath and blood testing.

Always on the side of law enforcement, Dubowski advocates changing the rules and using difference science when current science is not favoring law enforcement. Please read Mason & Dubowski (1975). In 1975, he began proclaiming that the blood to breath partition ratio problem would continue to lead to escalating scientific failures in court. The science is false because there is not an accurate partition ratio that applies to most people or even one person most of any particular day!

"Absorption, Distribution and Elimination of Alcohol" is the nail in the coffin for any prosecutor trying to argue that a breath test over the limit is the same as blood over the limit. Additionally, the article terminates any scientific support for use of retrograde extrapolation by law enforcement.

"Absorption, Distribution, and Elimination" is a wonderful defense-oriented article from the heart of the beast. It highlights the variability of humans: in consumption tolerance, in elimination, in trend line fluctuations of blood and breath concentration curves, and in the partition ratio.

The following highlights will hopefully encourage all DUI defense attorneys to read and use the article in court. For ease of reading, I will break the article into bullets.

First, the Absorption stage: Dubowski states that the body can take from 12-166 minutes to absorb alcohol.

  • The differential between arterial and venous blood can be 50-100% (Forney 1971).
  • "The time lag to post-absorptive state is crucial to Highway Safety." (That means highway law enforcement. Pg. 99).

Second, the Distribution stage:

Blood

  • The post-absorptive partition ration can be 1706-3063 (Dubowski and O'Neil 1979).
  • 1797:1 - 2763:1 = 95% of the general population.
  • 1555:1 - 3005:1 = 99.7% of the general population.
  • Dubowski states that there are "significant variations from the mean partition."

Urine

  • Dubowski states that "there is massive documentation that the blood alcohol concentration cannot be established sufficiently reliably for forensic purposed from·bladder urine because of the extensive variability of the blood urine ratio of alcohol (Kaye and Cordona 1969)."
  • .21:1 - 2.66:1 = all people.
  • .36:1 - 2.20:1 = 95%.
  • 0 - 2.66:1 = 99.7%.

Saliva

  • Inherent problems with field collection of specimens.
  • 1.04:1 parotid saliva: plasma.
  • 1.08:1 pooled saliva: blood (Jones 1979).

Sweat

  • There is a patch to determine abstention, but it lacks any validation.

Blood

  • Alcohol is not uniformly distributed between cellular and non-cellular components of blood.
  • "Hematological abnormalities are frequent."
  • Circadian and other shifts in fluid volumes contribute to the complications of measuring blood alcohol.
  • Plasma is a more appropriate specimen physiologically and pharmacokinetically.

Gender

  • Dubowski states that there are "marked differences related to sex and age."
  • Time to peak: 1.35 times longer in men.
  • Dose relationship: 12.8% higher in women.
  • Hourly decrease: 23.6% greater in women.
  • Premenstrual phase = "significantly higher peak" and greater absorption than men, than women during menstruation, and than women around time of ovulation.
  • Women on oral contraceptives = lower peak and lower elimination rate than women not on oral contraceptives.
  • Disappearance from blood at any time = 1.9 times greater in women than men.

Age

  • Older men = increase in elimination.
  • Older men = higher peak.
  • Disappearance from blood water - no correlation with age.
  • The explanation is a decrease in lean mass.

Time

  • Circadian rhythms affect concentration and elimination rates.
  • Retrograde or forward extrapolation infeasible:
    1. Lack of knowledge of timing of peak and absorption/post-absorption status.
    2. Ignorance of mathematical characteristics (linear, pseudolinear, exponential and mean rate of change of breath alcohol elimination curve).
    3. Unpredictable irregularities of the curve.

 

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