SPECIALIZED DUI DEFENSES FOR WOMEN

ORANGE COUNTY'S "BEST" OR "TOP-RATED" DUI DEFENSE LAWYERS RATED BY SUPER LAWYERS, ORANGE COUNTY'S "TOP-RATED" DUI DEFENSE ATTORNEYS

Providing DUI Legal Defense Strategies for Women

SPECIAL DUI ISSUES FOR WOMEN

Alcohol affects diverse individuals differently. There are many variables such as stomach content, time of drinking, etc. that affect how it is absorbed into the blood and therefore how it gets to the brain. Alcohol is absorbed into the body through the intestines, not the stomach. When alcohol is consumed, it passes from the stomach and intestines into the blood. This is a process referred to as absorption. Alcohol is then metabolized by enzymes. In the liver, an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) mediates the conversion of alcohol to acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is rapidly converted to acetate by the other enzymes and is eventually metabolized to carbon dioxide and water.

DUI Defenses for Women

Just as a given amount of alcohol effects people differently, men and women absorb alcohol differently. Women reach a higher BAC faster because they have less water in their bodies and more adipose tissue (fat), which is not easily penetrated by alcohol. Because of their lower proportion of lean body mass, women absorb alcohol more rapidly than men. Women also have lower total body water content than men of comparable size. After alcohol is consumed, it diffuses uniformly into all body water, both inside and outside cells. Because alcohol mixes with body water, a given amount of alcohol becomes more highly concentrated in a woman's body than in a man's. Simply put, DUI issues for a man are not the same as DUI issues for women.

Alcohol also affects women differently than men due to the fact that women metabolize alcohol more slowly. Women have less of the ADH enzyme. This causes a larger proportion of the ingested alcohol to reach the blood system prior to being converted to acetate. Women experience fluctuations in hormone levels during their menstrual cycle that may affect the rate of alcohol metabolism. This makes a woman more susceptible to elevated blood alcohol concentrations at different points in the cycle. They will experience their highest BAC during their premenstrual stage. Since body temperature is also elevated at this time, and during menopause, a women's true blood alcohol level may be overstated because breath testing in California assumes that the temperature of expired breath is 34 degree Celsius (convert to Fahrenheit)- every degree above average will result in a 6.9% false high. In addition, there is also evidence that a woman taking birth control pills will absorb alcohol faster, resulting in higher BAC levels.

To learn more about DUI Defenses Women, contact Peter F. Iocona, Attorney at Law for a free consultation.

Therefore, a man and woman, with all other factors being equal, both drinking the same amount of alcohol, will have different BAC levels. Hers will be higher and his will be lower.

It does not help that field sobriety testing and chemical testing are not developed for women either. The breath testing machines that are used are not designed to accurately test a woman's blood alcohol level let alone anyone’s true blood alcohol level for a variety of reasons. Additionally, as it relates to men and women and breath testing, the breathalyzer was designed for an average man's lung capacity, which is much different than that of a woman's. This causes the breathalyzer to read at much a higher level, thus making the test inaccurate in determining a woman's true blood alcohol level.

Most importantly, police officers are not trained to assess women for DUI as they are with men, and because women process and respond to alcohol differently than men, making it more difficult for an officer, even one with many arrests under his or her belt, to judge the intoxication level of a woman. 

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Orange County DUI Attorneys Providing DUI Defense in Orange County - Laguna Hills, Laguna Beach, Orange

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