Alcohol Facts

Alcohol facts that you should know:

As a very rough guide, over three units of alcohol if you're a man, and two if you're a woman, would put you over the legal driving limit.

As a very rough guide, it takes about an hour for one unit of alcohol to be removed from your blood stream.

There is no way of speeding up this process.

There is no reliable way of knowing exactly how many units of alcohol can be drunk without exceeding the legal limits for driving.

The effects of alcohol and the amount that gets into your blood stream is dependant on many factors. Your sex, size, the speed at which you are drinking and how much food you have eaten beforehand are all significant factors.

One unit of alcohol is equivalent to the amount in half a pint of beer of 3.6%abv.

Usually 20 minutes after your last drink the concentration of alcohol in you blood starts to fall.

To work out the number of units of alcohol in one pint of your favourite beer you can use this handy formula - 0.568 x %abv = number of units. (see below for more info. on this).

Units calculation is based on volume of the drink in millilitres (568 in a pint) x 0.001 x %alcohol by volume

Example: One pint of 4.8 (%abv beer) = 2.73 units (568 x 0.001 x 4.8 = 2.73)

Another example: One 125ml glass of wine @ 12%abv = 1.5 units
(125 x 0.001 x 12 = 1.5)