Does kissing someone who has just drunk transmit alcohol?

The amount of alcohol in the body is mainly excreted through urine, the rest is excreted through sweat and breath. When a person drinks alcohol, there will be alcohol in their breath and saliva, especially the reflux from the stomach to the mouth has a relatively high alcohol concentration.

Therefore, when kissing a drunk person for a relatively long time, you can "catch" the alcohol concentration from them. After kissing, your mouth is also contaminated with alcohol from the saliva or refluxed gastric juice of the drunk person.

However, the amount of alcohol entering the mouth and respiratory tract of the person kissing is low in concentration, then quickly metabolized in the liver, so it cannot cause intoxication. Therefore, when kissing someone who has just drunk alcohol, it is still possible to "catch" the alcohol concentration, but this case is very rare.

In Vietnam, by law, drivers of cars, motorbikes, and motorcycles are not allowed to have alcohol in their blood while driving. Therefore, when kissing a drunk person, you can blow alcohol on them. In this case, you can request a blood test for more accurate results.

We cannot calculate exactly how long after consuming alcoholic beverages the alcohol in the breath and blood will be gone. On average, the body eliminates 15 milligrams of alcohol from the blood every hour. The more alcohol in a drink, the longer it takes for the body to metabolize it.

In China, a woman was found to have a blood alcohol level exceeding the legal limit while driving on June 6, 2020. However, the woman insisted that she had not been drinking. The blood alcohol test result was zero. She explained that she had previously driven to pick up her drunk boyfriend and had kissed him before getting in the car, a kiss that could have lasted for a long time.

Based on the blood test results and the woman’s explanation, the traffic police believe that the two may have kissed for a long time, causing the alcohol concentration in the woman’s mouth to exceed the standard. To date, the world has not recorded any similar cases.

Experts recommend that men should not drink more than two units of alcohol a day, women no more than one unit of alcohol a day and not drink more than 5 days a week. One unit of alcohol is equivalent to 10g of pure alcohol contained in a drinking solution, which is about 3/4 of a 330ml bottle or can of beer (5%) or a 330ml glass of draft beer or a 100ml glass of wine (13.5%) or a 30ml shot of spirits (40%).

Dr. Tran Van Phuc (Saint Paul General Hospital)

Source