A man from Ballymena in Northern Ireland has received a three-year ban from driving and a fine of £300 after being found guilty of drink-driving following an accident. Not much of a news story there, you might think, but according to the man involved – Aaron Galbraith – he hadn’t touched any alcohol before being breathalysed at the roadside. Instead, he believes the breathalyser returned a positive reading because he had been vaping before being involved in the accident and immediately before being breathalysed.
Police arrived at the scene of the accident and found Mr Galbraith to be unsteady on his feet. He was also said to have exhibited slurred speech. He failed an initial breath test that was performed at the scene, as well as a subsequent one taken at the police station a little later on that night.
Mr Galbraith insists he was not drinking and says the vaping he had done was responsible for putting him over the legal limit for alcohol. According to research, two-thirds of e-cigs available on the market today contain ethanol. It is also known as ethyl alcohol. So could Mr Galbraith have been stone-cold sober and have failed the breathalyser tests that led to him ending up in court?
Apparently, Mr Galbraith is thinking about the possibility of appealing against the decision made against him in court. The team who defended him in court had consulted a scientist who said there was a possibility the e-cig had resulted in the reading given at the time. The judge considered the evidence but found the likelihood of e-cigarettes causing this situation was very remote, and therefore found Mr Galbraith guilty of the charge of driving with excess alcohol in his system.
Could e-cigarettes really cause someone to fail a breath test?
We did a spot of research on this and came across a Reddit thread where someone was basically asking the same question. Now it doesn’t look as though any official research has been done (something that perhaps should be?) but there is a chance a false positive might possibly be triggered in isolated cases.
Note the term ‘false positive’. Be aware we are not researchers, nor do we have any official expertise in this area. An expert on breathalysers would be the best person to consult if you have any concerns at all about this topic. Since some e-liquids do contain ethanol, it’s possible that if you were vaping heavily just before taking a breathalyser test, you could give a positive reading.
But there is really no firm knowledge in this area. Different people may have different thresholds in this way, and heavy vapers may potentially be the only people who might end up getting such a reading.
In the case of the man mentioned above, only he really knows whether he hadn’t been near alcohol in the hours leading up to the accident. Only he knows whether the vaping could possibly have caused the reading to show as it did. If he hadn’t been drinking, you have to wonder how many other heavy vapers could be at risk of triggering a false reading in much the same situation. If you’re ever stopped and you’ve been vaping very recently, it’s definitely worth mentioning it. We’d say this was one of those situations where it is better to disclose everything than not to disclose it at all. You wouldn’t want to get caught up in a situation similar to the one mentioned above.
What do you think? Do you think it might be possible for breathalysers to give a false positive for vapers?
