Alcohol: Impaired driving even with zero per mille

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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You shouldn't drive a car if you are drunk. With every glass, the ability to concentrate and react decreases - and the risk of an accident increases. It has now been shown that this negative effect of alcohol can continue the day after - even if there is little or no alcohol in the blood.

Cognitive tests the morning after the high

The psychologist Craig Gunn and his colleagues from Bath University have evaluated the results of a total of 19 studies on the subject. This included data from around 1200 people. The participants completed various cognitive tests. The day before, they had consumed copious amounts of alcohol. Her blood alcohol level was between 0.00 and 0.02 per thousand.

All participants performed worse than when they were completely unaffected by alcohol. They could concentrate less well and both short-term and long-term memories were impaired. Psychomotor skills such as coordination, speed and reaction time also suffered.

Impacts even without alcohol in the blood

After a night of drinking, most drivers are wise enough to wait until they are sober before getting behind the wheel. "The new results show that we can still be cognitively impaired by alcohol, even if the alcohol has long since left the bloodstream," warns study author Bath.

A hangover can therefore have serious consequences for performance in everyday activities. This applies to both driving and work.

The danger from alcohol is underestimated

According to the German Road Safety Council (DVR), 17,000 people had accidents in Germany in 2017 in traffic accidents in which alcohol was involved. 231 people were killed. The risk of drink-driving is still underestimated. According to a representative survey on behalf of the DVR of 1,500 people, one in four would drive home after a party, even though they had drunk one or two glasses of beer (0.3 liters) over the course of four hours.

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