Ministry of Health seeks opinions on proposal to determine alcohol concentration in driver's breath

The Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management (Ministry of Health) has just sent an official dispatch to experts and a number of specialized research units to give their opinions and proposals on the issue of alcohol concentration in the blood or breath of drivers of vehicles.

The proposal is 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.

The Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management requests experts and research units to give opinions and send proposals for regulatory content to the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management before February 20, for synthesis and reporting to the leaders of the Ministry of Health.

The leader of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management said that proposals from experts and professional units are the basis for the unit to research and propose regulations on alcohol concentration in blood or breath for drivers.

Recently, representatives of the Ministry of Health also had a meeting with the Ministry of Public Security on a number of issues related to alcohol concentration regulations for drivers. This issue will be discussed by the two ministries and related agencies in the coming time.

The Ministry of Health is seeking opinions on a proposal to determine alcohol concentration in drivers' breath (Photo: Huu Thang).

Regarding the issue of criminal handling of drivers with alcohol concentration, Mr. Nguyen Trong Khoa - Deputy Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management (Ministry of Health) said: "We support the handling of administrative violations involving alcohol concentration when driving vehicles in traffic. Thanks to the strict handling of violations of alcohol concentration, the number of traffic accidents has decreased significantly. Currently, the Ministry of Health is coordinating with the National Traffic Safety Committee to compile statistics and will soon have specific figures on how the number of traffic accidents has decreased."

Regarding the issue of penalties for violations when alcohol concentration exceeds the limit, Mr. Khoa said that the Ministry of Health has held a scientific conference in coordination with the Ministry of Public Security on the above issue.

“In my personal opinion, if alcohol concentration violations cause accidents, they must be prosecuted. If the alcohol concentration is too high to drive, they must be strictly punished. However, we will have to refer to regulations from other countries in the world to come up with a harmonized regulation,” said Mr. Khoa.

Regarding the alcohol concentration threshold, Decision No. 320 dated January 23, 2014 of the Minister of Health stipulates the quantification of ethanol (quantification of alcohol concentration) in the blood, in section 60 of this decision.

Accordingly, at point 4 "result assessment" it is stated: the value is usually below 10.9 mmol/liter (equivalent to 50 mg/100 ml) .

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/bo-y-te-lay-y-kien-de-xuat-xac-dinh-nong-do-con-trong-hoi-tho-tai-xe-a648926.html