{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,4]],"date-time":"2025-11-04T15:56:07Z","timestamp":1762271767826,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2014,1,30]],"date-time":"2014-01-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1391040000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/termsAndConditions#vor"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Drug Testing and Analysis"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2014,10]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>The measurement of blood\u2010alcohol content (BAC) is a crucial analytical determination required to assess if an offence (e.g. driving under the influence of alcohol) has been committed. For various reasons, results of forensic alcohol analysis are often challenged by the defence. As a consequence, measurement uncertainty becomes a critical topic when assessing compliance with specification limits for forensic purposes. The aims of this study were: (1) to investigate major sources of variability for BAC determinations; (2) to estimate measurement uncertainty for routine BAC determinations; (3) to discuss the role of measurement uncertainty in compliance assessment; (4) to set decision rules for a multiple BAC threshold law, as provided in the Italian Highway Code; (5) to address the topic of the zero\u2010alcohol limit from the forensic toxicology point of view; and (6) to discuss the role of significant figures and rounding errors on measurement uncertainty and compliance assessment. Measurement variability was investigated by the analysis of data collected from real cases and internal quality control. The contribution of both pre\u2010analytical and analytical processes to measurement variability was considered. The resulting expanded measurement uncertainty was 8.0%. Decision rules for the multiple BAC threshold Italian law were set by adopting a guard\u2010banding approach. 0.1\u2009g\/L was chosen as cut\u2010off level to assess compliance with the zero\u2010alcohol limit. The role of significant figures and rounding errors in compliance assessment was discussed by providing examples which stressed the importance of these topics for forensic purposes. Copyright \u00a9 2014 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1002\/dta.1614","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2014,1,30]],"date-time":"2014-01-30T16:33:04Z","timestamp":1391099584000},"page":"1028-1037","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":20,"title":["Variability of blood alcohol content (BAC) determinations: The role of measurement uncertainty, significant figures, and decision rules for compliance assessment in the frame of a multiple BAC threshold law"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"6","author":[{"given":"Luca","family":"Zamengo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Environmental Hygiene and Forensic Toxicology, Department of Prevention ULSS12 Veneziana  Regione Veneto, Venezia Mestre Venezia Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Giampietro","family":"Frison","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Environmental Hygiene and Forensic Toxicology, Department of Prevention ULSS12 Veneziana  Regione Veneto, Venezia Mestre Venezia Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Gianpaola","family":"Tedeschi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Environmental Hygiene and Forensic Toxicology, Department of Prevention ULSS12 Veneziana  Regione Veneto, Venezia Mestre Venezia Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Samuela","family":"Frasson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Environmental Hygiene and Forensic Toxicology, Department of Prevention ULSS12 Veneziana  Regione Veneto, Venezia Mestre Venezia Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Flavio","family":"Zancanaro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Environmental Hygiene and Forensic Toxicology, Department of Prevention ULSS12 Veneziana  Regione Veneto, Venezia Mestre Venezia Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Rocco","family":"Sciarrone","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Environmental Hygiene and Forensic Toxicology, Department of Prevention ULSS12 Veneziana  Regione Veneto, Venezia Mestre Venezia Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2014,1,30]]},"reference":[{"volume-title":"Clarke's Analysis of Drugs and Poisons in pharmaceuticals, body fluids and postmortem material","year":"2011","author":"Jones A.W.","key":"e_1_2_6_2_1"},{"volume-title":"Driving Under the Influence of Drugs, Alcohol and Medicines in Europe \u2014 findings from the DRUID project","year":"2012","author":"European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction","key":"e_1_2_6_3_1"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jsr.2008.02.030"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_5_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.forsciint.2009.01.014"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_6_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/jat\/19.4.241"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_7_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/anatox\/35.7.501"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_8_1","first-page":"23","article-title":"Medicolegal alcohol determinations\u2014blood\u2014or breath\u2013alcohol concentration?","volume":"12","author":"Jones A.W.","year":"2000","journal-title":"Forensic Sci. 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