Speaking with VietNamNet , the leader of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management (Ministry of Health) said that the Ministry of Health has assigned the Legal Department to coordinate with a number of units under the Ministry, including the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management, to study the contents related to regulations on alcohol concentration in the blood or breath of drivers of vehicles.
The Department of Medical Examination and Treatment has sent a document to experts and some units, requesting research and recommendations based on medical aspects such as: alcohol concentration detected in the body not due to alcohol or beer use; alcohol concentration limit in blood or breath of vehicle drivers.
According to current law, drivers are not allowed to have alcohol in their blood or breath. However, many people are concerned about the situation where even though they do not consume or come into contact with alcoholic foods or drink alcohol, they still have alcohol in their blood and breath, so they are afraid of being unfairly punished.
A medical expert said that the concept of "endogenous alcohol" is understood as cases where no amount of alcohol is received from the outside, including from drugs, fermented foods, alcohol-containing products, or even inhaling alcohol vapor during work... but the blood or breath when tested has an alcohol concentration. That is, alcohol is produced by the body itself.
However, this expert also confirmed that all cases of endogenous alcohol are people with diseases, commonly people with structural diseases of the digestive tract, such as surgery, gastrointestinal diseases, biliary tract, dysbiosis in the digestive tract, cirrhosis, diabetes... Healthy people do not have this phenomenon.
People are worried about being unfairly punished when they do not consume alcohol or beer but still have alcohol levels detected in their bodies. (Illustration: Dinh Hieu)
People do not need to worry too much, because people with such diseases have endogenous alcohol very little, rare. That means the rate of people with endogenous alcohol in the community is very low.
However, there are still a very few people with high endogenous alcohol levels, but there is no need to worry too much. Doctors advise that if possible, you should go to a specialized medical facility to check, test, and confirm alcohol, without fear of being wronged.
In fact, currently, legal documents do not have regulations on natural alcohol in the body.
In section 60 of Decision No. 320/QD-BYT dated January 23, 2014 of the Minister of Health, there are regulations on ethanol quantification (alcohol concentration quantification) in blood. Accordingly, in section 4 "result assessment" it is stated:
- Normal value: below 10.9 mmol/l (equivalent to 50 mg/100 ml).
- Ethanol from 10.9 - 21.7 mmol/l: symptoms include red face, vomiting, slow reflexes, and decreased sensitivity.
- Concentration 21.7 mmol/liter: shows central nervous system inhibition.
- Concentration 86.8 mmol/l: can be life-threatening.
The above content in Decision No. 320/QD-BYT is a medical classification of alcohol levels and thresholds corresponding to the level of health effects. This does not mean that blood alcohol concentrations below 0.5 mg/ml (below 10.9 mmol/l) are considered natural alcohol in the body.
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