B.M.A. Favours Blood Test

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31234, 5 December 1966, Page 22

B.M.A. Favours Blood Test

An arbitary level of alcohol in the blood, above which it would be an offence to drive a motor vehicle, is favoured by the Canterbury division of the British Medical Association. “The 100 milligrams a 100 millilitres suggested is sufficiently high to give the benefit of the doubt to the borderline case,” said the division’s liaison officer (Dr. A. C. Sandston) yesterday. “The public accepts an arbitrary speed limit of 30 miles an hour in the interests of road safety: why not an arbitrary blood level of alcohol in the same interest?” At a recent meeting, the division considered the Minister of Transport (Mr McAlpine) could be expected to give a lead in actively pursuing any measures which would help to reduce the road toll. Unofficial Test “But instead of this, he uses an experiment which, as Professor L. F. Phililps, has pointed out, was unofficial, unpublished and unverified, and uses it as an argument against progressive legislation on this subject.” Mr McAlpine repeated this week an earlier statement that blood tests alone could not prove that a driver was incapable of driving. The tests gave some indication of the degree of intoxication, but were not sufficiently accurate, he said. The division considered that Mr McAlpine had failed to appreciate the place and importance of blood alcohol estimations.

“Firstly, and most important, a blood alcohol level is not a measure of drunkeness or intoxication, which is a variable subjective state

which so far defies measurement,” Dr. Sandston said. Yet it was known and well proven that the presence of alcohol in the blood impaired all skills. This impairment became apparent at a level of approximately 50 milligrams a 100 millilitres, and above that level, the degree of impairment increased until at 150 gm. in 100 ml. alcohol in the blood, even the most hardened drinker was incapable of safe driving. “The amount of alcohol consumed, the speed of consumption, the rate of absorption, and finally the rate of detoxication, as mentioned by the Minister, are really irrelevant,” Dr. Sandston said. “The basic problem is the actual concentration of alcohol in the blood and the degree of impairment of skills that this causes. “What medical men find so inexplicable are the legal and emotional barriers which are

placed in the way of scientific investigation of this problem. “As has been pointed out, the drunken driver appears to be a ‘sacred cow’ in New Zealand, and it has so far proved impossible, legally, to show statistically by taking blood alcohol levels on road accident cases admitted to hospitals, how large a part alcohol plays.”

Dr. Sandston said any casualty doctor or traffic officer knew conclusively that alcohol was a factor in a large percentage of these cases. “But until it becomes legally permissible to estimate blood alcohol levels on these people, it will be impossible to demonstrate the incontrovertible facts publicly,” he said.