Study finds e-cigarette users may unknowingly fail sobriety tests

Five years ago, researchers led by Dr. Michelle Peace, a forensic science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, revealed that electronic cigarette liquids - the flavored nicotine solutions used in e-cigarettes - often contain ethanol or alcohol as an undisclosed ingredient.

The presence of ethanol in e-cigarette liquid raises an important concern for public safety and law enforcement: can inadvertently consuming alcohol through vaping cause a sober individual to fail a breathalyzer test?

To answer this question, Peace and Dr. Alison Breland, Chief Research Officer at United Health, teamed up with a professor from the College of Humanities and Sciences' psychology department and the VCU Tobacco Products Research Center to conduct a human clinical study, in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Forensic Science and the VCU Police Department.

Researchers had 13 participants use e-cigarette oils with either 20% ethanol or 0% ethanol concentrations. Prior to and after vaping, Lieutenant Edgar Greer from the VCU Police Department conducted preliminary and evidential breath tests, as well as standardized field sobriety tests - including horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN), walk-and-turn, and one-leg stand - to replicate roadside procedures used by law enforcement in suspected DUI cases.

They discovered that after inhaling e-liquid containing 20% ethanol, a preliminary breath test can immediately (in less than a minute) detect the concentration of exhaled ethanol.

However, when the police waited the standard 15 to 20 minutes (waiting time for roadside breath testing) the individual had consumed electronic cigarette oil containing 20% ethanol, as predicted, resulting in an inconclusive preliminary breath test. Researchers also found that consuming ethanol did not affect standardized field sobriety testing, evidence that breath testing is completely unaffected by ethanol consumption.

We have reported negative results, and we are very excited about this," said Peace. "During our study, we found that a waiting time of 15 to 20 minutes was consistent. We need to include this in the literature because some lawyers are trying to use e-cigarette use as a defense for avoiding driving under the influence charges. What we can now say is that if a state or jurisdiction maintains a 15 to 20 minute waiting period, e-cigarette use will not affect preliminary breath tests.

Wait for 15 to 20 minutes to allow the ethanol to be reabsorbed and disappear from the mouth. The waiting period is crucial because e-cigarette liquid is sticky and often stays in the mouth shortly after use. We are concerned that the sticky nature may make it more difficult for ethanol to disappear from the mouth," said Peace.

The researchers' findings will have an impact beyond law enforcement. Alaina Holt, a doctoral student in the VCU Integrated Life Sciences program who worked with Peace, explained that these discoveries should be taken into consideration in other contexts of alcohol testing, including workplace screening test sites.

According to Holt, some institutions and industries use preliminary breath testing devices to indicate alcohol consumption. If they are not within a waiting period of 5 to 20 minutes, in this situation, individuals who continuously vape may test positive.

The results of this research will be presented at the annual meeting of the International Association of Forensic Toxicologists in France this week. The study was funded by the National Institute of Justice, a branch of the US Department of Justice, for a project called "Vaping Ethanol on DUI: Investigating the Effects.

In 2018 and 2019, the National Institute of Justice provided two grants totaling approximately $1.8 million to Peace and her collaborators for research on the effects of consuming ethanol.

These experiments are being conducted at the Tobacco Product Research Center, which brings together multidisciplinary faculty from VCU, the American University of Beirut, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, the University of Southern California, as well as other American and international universities and organizations focused on regulating tobacco products.

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