The drink-drive limit will be lowered under new road safety legislation planned for this autumn in England and Wales.
The limit will be cut from 35 to 22 micrograms of alcohol per millilitre of breath, following the same move in Scotland in 2014, The Times has reported.
Health officials no longer equate breath or blood alcohol levels to how many drinks it would take to reach that level, as it varies from person to person.
There have long been calls for the rest of the UK to match its drink-drive limits with those of Scotland, in an effort to reduce the 300 UK deaths a year involving a driver over the legal limit.
While the change may leave people wondering how much they can now drink before driving, campaigners and health experts have said the only safe option is for people to avoid alcohol completely if they will be driving afterwards.
Alcohol worsens people’s driving ability in several ways, said Karen Tyrell, chief executive of the charity Drinkaware.
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“The brain takes a lot longer to receive messages when you’ve been drinking. So that means processing information is more difficult, and you have slower reaction times,” she said.
When someone sees a road hazard, they are slower to slam their foot on the brakes, said Tyrell. “Stopping times are one of the obvious things that are slowed as your reaction speed slows.
“Your ability to concentrate and your ability to coordinate yourself are all impacted by drinking alcohol.”
Health experts generally do not offer advice on an amount of alcohol that it is safe to have before driving, because people vary in their tolerance and how quickly their liver breaks down alcohol, said Dr James Gill, a GP and lecturer at the University of Warwick.
How quickly can you metabolise your pint? (Photo: urbazon/Getty)Why alcohol affects people differently
People are less affected by drinking if they are taller or heavier, as they have more blood to dilute the alcohol. They may also have greater alcohol tolerance if they are regular drinkers.
Another variable is how quickly the liver breaks down alcohol. On average the liver gets rid of alcohol at a rate of one unit (about half a pint of lower-strength lager) per hour. But some people’s livers are naturally faster or slower. “If you’ve got a bigger liver, you clear things faster,” said Dr Gill.
Women generally have less alcohol tolerance than men, partly because of their lower weight. Older people may also take longer to break it down due to slower metabolism – although they may have built up more alcohol tolerance over time.
And none of the methods that are sometimes claimed to sober people up actually help, including drinking coffee, having a cold shower or a sleep, said Tyrell.
“None of those things do anything to remove alcohol from your bloodstream, and that’s what is going to impair you. So the best advice is not to be drinking alcohol for many hours before you’re thinking about getting in front of the wheel.”
Some policy experts warned, however, that any law change needs to be accompanied by better police enforcement measures – because, when the drink drive limit was lowered in Scotland, there was no change in alcohol-related collisions.
“If it’s lowered without enforcement, then it’s unlikely to have an impact,” said Dr Jonathan James, an economist at the University of Bath, who studied what happened in Scotland. “If it’s lowered with enforcement, then it has a much greater potential to have an impact.”
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Read MoreWhen some Australian states introduced random breathalyser checks for drivers, this was followed by a reduction in alcohol-related deaths, he said.
Another possibility is that people who cause drunk-driving accidents would not be deterred from doing so by any law change as they already breach the current limit.
“If the limit goes from, say, two to one pint, that’s not going to have an impact on someone who was already drinking five pints and driving,” said Dr James.
People may also be encouraged to leave their car at home when drinking if there are more public transport options, said his colleague Professor Marco Francesconi.
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