I decided to add this tool as this site will be selling alcoholic beverages. By all means use it for guidance. But see the warning below.
Important Warning: although this tool is an excellent educational aid, and it gives you some insight into how a given amount of alcohol consumed will affect a person of a given age, sex, and weight, this will only
ever be a crude estimate. This is because there are so many factors which will influence the blood alcohol concentration, which also include existing medical conditions, medication, tollerence for alcohol (which affects the rate at which alcohol is processed), the amount of fat in the body (fat does not dilute alcohol as water does), and many other factors.
Under no circumstances should this be taken as guidance regarding your fitness to drive or enguage in any other activity in which is dangerous. Remember that even drinking within the legal limits will noticably impair your reaction time and concentration, whilst giving a false sense of confidence.
Legal limits in the United Kingdom:
The maximum BAC (blood alcohol content) limit in England & Wales is one of the highest in the world:
35 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, OR 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood OR 107 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of urine.
In Scotland, a new lower limit (much more typical when compared to other European countries) has recently been introduced:
Scotland Drink Driving Limit:
The maximum BAC (blood alcohol content) limit in Scotland is:
22 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, OR 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, OR 67 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of urine.
Since your ability to drive is impaired even within legal limits, and since you can never be certain how much a given individual can drink whilst remaining within the legal limit,
the only absolutely safe advice is not to drink at all if you will be driving. Remember that many people fail breath tests the morning after a few drinks.
A good rule of thumb is to allow an hour for each unit consumed to be elliminated after your last drink (for a man); increase this time by 50% for women as they generally 'burn off' alcohol more slowly. In general, avoid drinking at all within 8 hours of getting behind the wheel, and only drink in moderation between 8 and 24 hours beforehand.