Friday, August 22, 2014

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN HOWARD COUNTY DRUNK DRIVING

www.CharlesJeromeWare.com.  "Here to make a difference."
 
Top defense attorney Charles Ware is ranked and recognized by both his many satisfied clients as well as his legal peers as "One of the 10 Best DUI and DWI Attorneys in the State of Maryland [AIDUIA "10 BEST"].  For an initial courtesy consultation, call him at (410) 730-5016 or (410) 720-6129, or email defense attorney Charles Ware at charlesjeromeware@msn.com.

It should be of no surprise that women are different than men. It should also be of no surprise that men and women absorb alcohol differently. Women have less water in their bodies and more adipose tissue, or fat, which is not easily penetrated by the alcohol, which in turn causes women to reach higher blood alcohol levels faster than men. Moreover, because of their lower proportion of lean body mass, women tend to absorb alcohol at a more rapid pace than men. Women also have a lower total body water content than men, and this also affects the rate at which women absorb alcohol. Because alcohol mixes with body water, alcohol becomes more highly concentrated in a woman's body than in a man's body. In addition to the fact that women absorb more quickly than men, women metabolize alcohol more slowly than men.

Another issue that causes alcohol to affect women differently than men is that women may experience fluctuations in hormone levels during their menstrual cycles that may further affect the rate at which a women metabolizes alcohol. This can make a women more susceptible to elevated blood alcohol concentrations at different points in the cycle. Women will typically experience their highest breath or blood alcohol levels during their premenstrual stage. Because a women's body temperature is typically elevated during this time period, a women's true blood alcohol level may be over-estimated or over-reported by a considerable margin if she took a breath test as opposed to a blood test. This is made worse by the simple fact that breath testing devices were designed for an "average man's" lung capacity, not an "average woman's" lung capacity. This, in turn, may also cause a breath testing device to over-estimate or over-report a women's true blood alcohol level or concentration.

 These assertions regarding the fact that breath testing devices were not designed for women has been recently validated by medical experts who have raised doubt as to the accuracy of breath test devices when used to estimate a women's true blood alcohol level. Current research has suggested that breath test devices like the Intoxilyzer 5000, (which is not Portable Evidentiary Breath Testing Device or PEBT), is biased against women because it is calibrated to a male's physiological make-up and not a female's physiological make-up. Moreover, the breath testing devices make no adjustments for when a female is being breath tested instead of a male breath testing subject.

To make matters worse, the field sobriety tests were not designed for women, either, therefore making the field sobriety tests more difficult for women to perform. This causes women to appear more intoxicated than men simply by virtue of the fact that women are not suitable candidates for the field sobriety testing that is being used by law enforcement agencies across the country.

If you are a women who was arrested for driving under the influence in Howard County or anywhere in the State of Maryland, you need a DUI Defense Attorney who understands these complex issues and the unique defenses that are available to women. The DUI Defense Lawyers of Charles Jerome Ware, LLC are such lawyers and are standing by to discuss your DUI case and the unique defenses that present themselves just because you are a women and not a man. The unique defenses applicable to women could mean the difference between a DUI conviction and a dismissal of the DUI charges.

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