Massachusetts DWI DUI OUI Field Sobriety Test Police Training Manual

cord. Ethanol gets to the brain by getting into the blood. In order to get into the blood, it has to get into the body.

There are actually a number of different ways in which ethanol can get into the body. It can be inhaled. Ethanol fumes, when taken into the lungs, will pass into the bloodstream and a positive blood alcohol concentration (BAC) will develop.

However, prolonged breathing of fairly concentrated fumes would be required to produce a significantly high BAC. Ethanol could also be injected, directly into a vein; it would then flow with the blood back to the heart, where it would be pumped first to the lungs and then to the brain. And, it could be inserted, as an enema, and pass quickly from the large intestine into the blood. But none of these methods are of any practical significance, because alcohol is almost always introduced into the body orally, i.e., by drinking.

Absorption

Once the ethanol gets into the stomach, it has to move into the blood. The process by which this happens is known as absorption. One very important fact that pertains to alcohol absorption is that it doesn’t have to be digested in order to move from the stomach to the blood. Another very important fact is that alcohol can pass directly through the walls of the stomach. These two facts, taken together, mean that—under the right circumstances—absorption of alcohol can be accomplished fairly quickly. The ideal circumstance for rapid absorption is to drink on an empty stomach.

When the alcohol enters the empty stomach, about 20 percent of it will make its way directly through the stomach walls The remaining 80 percent will pass through the base of the stomach and enter the small intestine, from which it is readily absorbed into the blood. Because the body doesn’t need to digest the alcohol before admitting it into the bloodstream, the small intestine will be open to the alcohol as soon as it hits the stomach.

But what if there is food in the stomach? Suppose the person has had something to eat shortly before drinking, or eats food while drinking; will that affect the absorption of alcohol?

Yes it will. Food has to be at least partially digested in the stomach before it can pass to the small intestine. When the brain senses that food is in the stomach, it commands a muscle at the base of the stomach to constrict, and cut off the passage to the small intestine. The muscle is called the pylorus, or pyloric valve. As long as it remains constricted, little or nothing will move out of the stomach and into the small intestine. If alcohol is in the stomach along with the food, the alcohol will also remain trapped behind the pylon’s. Some of the alcohol trapped

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