Being a bartender or being involved in alcohol sales means means you might be asked from time to time about blood alcohol content (BAC) from customers, friends, or curious family members. You should have a toolbox of BAC apps at your disposal. Once you receive your certification, you become the go-to person for everything alcohol related.
“How much alcohol is in a screwdriver?”
“Can I drink more if I eat first?”
“Will I get sick if I drink liquor or beer first?”
Some of the questions are silly, but others give you a chance to really impart some health education on how people can be responsible drinkers. Here are a few of the top BAC apps and educational tools in use today.
BAC Breathalyzer
A more surefire way to test BAC is with the BACTrack Breathalyzer App for iOS. You need the breathalyzer which connects the app to your device wirelessly using Bluetooth. One of the best features is that you can use it to test not only yourself, but your friends who are with you as well. Another nice feature is the ZeroLine which tells you approximately how long it will take you to get all of the alcohol out of your system.
The Virtual Bar
Available both online and as an app, The Virtual Bar from The Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility is a good BAC estimator to explore before you go out for a night of drinking. You select your gender, height, weight, and age, and then the type of drink to consume. You also select how long you take to consume the drink, a minute (like a shot or chug), 15 minutes, or 30 minutes. This app also allows you to add food eaten which can be an important factor in BAC. When you begin drinking with food in your stomach, this slows the absorption of alcohol. So, you can see the difference between drinking on an empty stomach, or after a cheeseburger and fries. This app also tells you how long it will take you to get back to 0.000 BAC.
Duke University
The Alcohol Pharmacology Education Partnership at Duke University has an excellent comprehensive program for sharing information with high school-aged students. This is an ideal program for talking about drinking with your kids, nieces and nephews, or even first year college students. We hope they don’t drink because it’s illegal for anyone under 21 (under most circumstances), but parties happen and opportunities happen. Let’s arm them with the information they need to make safe decisions based on the facts.
You’ll want to keep your toolkit of alcohol education apps and materials handy as you enter your bartending or alcohol sales career. You never know who you’ll be able to help by showing how them how to enjoy responsibly.