Under-20 drivers worried that using alcohol-based products like mouthwashes or cough syrup could have dire consequences need not fret.
Police say new "zero tolerance" drink-driving rules mean just that, but they do have means to detect and distinguish between "mouth alcohol" and alcohol that has entered the lungs.
Under new rules that came in on August 7, teenagers caught driving after even a sip of alcohol face at least a ticket and at worst court.
If an evidential breath-test shows a driver under 20 has 150mcg or under of alcohol in their system per litre of breath, they will receive an instant $200 infringement notice and 50 demerit points. If the level is over 150mcg, the person will be sent to court.
The Southern police district's acting road policing manager, Acting Senior Sergeant Peter Muldrew, said police had no discretion if breath tests indicated the presence of alcohol, however there was a tolerance built into evidential breath-testing machines, which were "calibrated annually and to a high level of accuracy by ESR".
A new evidential breath-testing device being introduced had the ability to detect and distinguish between mouth alcohol and alcohol in the lungs.
Mosgiel police had one of the new devices, but Dunedin would be using the old model until it needed to be recalibrated.
As well as the built-in tolerance in the devices, evidential breath tests were usually taken at a police station at least 20 minutes after the person's last drink, by which time mouth alcohol would usually have evaporated.
