Most of the relevant factors and considerations affecting the alcohol contents of various body tissues and fluids and the dose-time-effect relationships fall into the field of pharmacokinetics, which broadly concerns the absorption, distribution, biotransformation andexcretion of drugs. pharmacokinetic parameters affect both the validity and usefulness of alcohol determinations as indicators of driver impairment by alcohol in such respects as choice of sample materials and the probative value and interpretation of results of alcohol analysis. an understanding of alcohol pharmacokinetics is also needed for the proper evaluation and assessment of the validity and significance of studies correlating alcohol concentrations in body fluidswith driver performance or impairment, and for proper appreciation of differences between studies. in this paper, several of the more relevant and problematic aspects of alcohol pharmacokinetcs are considered from the aspect of highway safety.
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