Man Acquitted of Drink-driving After Proving His Body Creates Its Own Alcohol

Picture this: you have been charged with drink driving but the charges are dismissed on the basis that you suffer from an abnormal condition in which your body produces alcohol. Sounds bizarre, but it is not. 

 

On April 22, a 40-year-old man in Belgium’s Bruges was acquitted on charges of drink-driving after his lawyers proved that he suffers from auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), which causes carbohydrates in his stomach to be fermented, increasing ethanol levels in his blood and resulting in signs of intoxication.

 

Belgian media said in the verdict the judge emphasized that the defendant, who was not named in line with local judicial custom, did not experience symptoms of intoxication.

 

The man, who coincidentally works at a brewery, ended up in court after police in April 2022 pulled his vehicle over and registered him giving a breathalyser reading of 0.91 milligrammes of alcohol per litre, and again a month later when his breath contained 0.71 milligrammes.

 

Importantly, the legal limit in Belgium is 0.22 milligrammes per litre of air exhaled, which corresponds to a blood alcohol level of 0.5 grammes per litre. 

 

In 2019 too, he had received a fine and a driving licence suspension despite protesting that he had not drunk any alcohol. The court recognised that factors unforeseen by law applied to the man’s case and acquitted him of the charge.

 

Auto-brewery syndrome, also known as gut fermentation, is a mysterious condition that raises the levels of alcohol in the blood and produces the symptoms of alcohol intoxication in patients, even when they have had minimal or no alcohol intake.

 

People are not born with ABS but can develop it when they already have another intestine-related condition. Patients can present with symptoms consistent with alcohol intoxication such as slurred speech, stumbling, loss of motor functions, dizziness and belching.

 

ABS is a rare condition with medical experts stating only 20 people have been diagnosed with it officially. Authors of a 2019 case report in BMJ Open Gastroenterology also noted ABS was an underdiagnosed medical condition.

 

China's first homemade large passenger aircraft C919 has landed another big order from Air China. 

 

China's national carrier on Friday announced the purchase of 100 C919 jets from Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) in a deal worth $10.8 billion, with the aircraft to be delivered in batches from 2024 to 2031. 

 

Notably, this deal marks the second relatively large-scale order for the C919 following the previous order of 100 aircraft made by China Eastern Airlines in September 2023.