In Finland, a home test failed to detect alcohol after a glass of wine — YLE News
In Helsinki, Finland, during a journalist's experiment, one of the home alcohol tests appeared not to detect alcohol after 16 centilitres of white wine had been consumed. At the same time, a police breathalyser detected alcohol in exhaled air, YLE News reports.
Different test results
The journalist drank a glass of wine over approximately half an hour and then used two inexpensive portable home tests. The tube-based Co-Test Alkotest, which measures the alcohol content in exhaled air, showed approximately 0.2 per mille. To interpret the result, the colour of the sample in the tube had to be compared with a colour scale.
The Medigoo Alkoholitesti saliva-sample test did not change colour and, according to the experiment's conclusion, did not detect alcohol. The package contained two such tests, so the check was immediately repeated. The second test also showed a zero result.
For comparison, Senior Police Inspector Ari Järveläinen tested the journalist with a police breathalyser. The device showed 0.06 milligrams of alcohol in exhaled air, which, according to YLE, corresponds to approximately 0.13 per mille. Slightly more than half an hour had passed between the first home test and the police check, so some of the alcohol may already have been eliminated from the body.
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Police advise against relying on self-tests
In Finland, the limit for driving under the influence is 0.22 milligrams of alcohol in exhaled air, or 0.5 per mille. Ari Järveläinen warned that home tests may fail to work or provide an inaccurate result, so police do not recommend using them to decide whether to get behind the wheel.
In both tests, the result had to be read after a specified number of minutes following the collection of the sample. Accuracy may be affected by user errors, lighting and subjective colour perception. The instructions for one of the tests state that its result is only preliminary and informative and cannot be used to challenge checks carried out by police.
Liver specialist Tarja Teitto-Tackett also stressed that such tests do not indicate the health status of the liver. According to her, a low reading may create a false sense of safety regarding alcohol consumption.
