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Permissible Blood Alcohol Limits and Driving
"If you drink, don´t drive. Don´t even putt." - Dean Martin
Alcohol content in blood is measured either as a percentage by mass or by mass per volume or a combination. For example,
- BAC of 0.20% can mean 2 grams of alcohol per 1000 grams of an individual's blood
- Or it can mean 0.2 grams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.
Permissible Blood Alcohol Limits while driving light motor vehicle (e.g. passenger car)
| Blood Alcohol Limits | Countries |
| 0.08% | Mexico, Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. |
| 0.05% | Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Republic of Macedonia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Turkey. |
| 30 mg/dL | India |
| 25 mg/dl | Spain |
| 20 mg/dL | Norway, Sweden, Russia, Estonia and Poland |
For Pilots: The Federal Aviation Regulations governing U.S. pilots prohibits operation of an aircraft within eight hours of consumption or while having as little as 0.04 percent of alcohol by weight in the blood. Similar laws apply to most of the countries.
Common Carriers such as buses: In the United States operators of carriers such as buses are restricted to a 0.01% limit.
CAN A PERSON DRIVE A VEHICLE- FOUR WHEEL WITH ALCOHOL INTAKE OF MORE THAN 0.9%. OR SAY 95 MGM LEVEL.. IS IT MEDICALLY POSSIBLE TO DRIVE A FOUR WHEELER FOR 40 KM WITH 0.95% OR 9.5 MG OF ALCOHOL
Even Dubai is quite strict for drunken driving. They take photos - from Police cameras and people get booked with hefty fines.
Can someone help me by telling me how much wine or beer or whisky can I drink which will keep me below the permissable levels under the Indian law of 30mg. i shall be grateful. Shiv Hazari
Better not drink mate. Why drink in the first place..?
How does 30mg/100ml translate in terms of the amount of Alchohol that can be consumed by an individual and keep him within this safe limit. Will having a bottle of beer keep within this safe thresh hold. I know BAC depends on a lot of other factors...but I guess a safe limit can be arrived at in terms of bottles of beer.....or a CHOTA or a BADA peg.......Cheerio.