Dallas DWI Lawyer

Why Alcohol Impairment Charts are Merely a Suggestion

Every year, individuals are given alcohol impairment charts as a way to determine whether or not they are drunk. These charts, while they are helpful to give people an idea as to whether or not they are ok to drive, are really quite useless.

Alcohol impairment charts should be taken as a suggestion because of the many factors that contribute to an individual being drunk. For starters, there is the ratio of body fat to lean muscle. This is quite possibly the most important factor than an impairment chart cannot take into account. If two individuals both weight 180 pounds and are both 5'10", they can have very different levels of tolerance. This is because one person can have a significantly larger amount of lean muscle compared to body fat. The more lean muscle a person has, the better they will be able to hold their alcohol.

Another factor that is not taken into account on these impairment charts is whether or not a person has eaten. Drinking on an empty stomach gives an individual a much lower tolerance than does drinking with food in the stomach.

The benefit of the impairment charts is that they do have separate charts for men and women. It has been shown through various measures that men can drink more alcohol without being legally drunk than women can. This is due partially to differences in the body fat to lean muscle ratio of each group.

If you have been charged with a DWI, a DWI lawyer is a must have. The Dallas DWI lawyers of the Law Office of Mark T Lassiter are here to keep your name clear and your driver's license in your pocket. Contact them at 214-457-1668 today.