• "The major conclusion of this study is that a majority of the driving population is impaired in some important measures at BACs as low as 0.02% BAC."
• "While there is partial evidence of impairment at 0.02% BAC, a major conclusion of this study is that by 0.04% BAC, all measures of impairment that are statistically significant are in the direction of degraded performance. The data provides no evidence of a BAC below which impairment does not occur."
• "Although the laws subsequently passed throughout the United States lowered the limit to 0.10% or 0.08%, scientific studies of alcohol on driving skills demonstrate that impairment also occurs at even lower BAC."
• "[T]here was evidence of significant impairment throughout the BAC range of 0.02% to 0.10%, with increasing percentage of subjects impaired and increasing magnitude of impairment at higher BACs."
• "Finally, this laboratory study indicates that some important driving skills are impaired when there has been use of even small amounts of alcohol."
• "The overwhelming majority of [research subjects] were significantly impaired by alcohol on some important measures beginning at 0.02% BAC."

If the problem is drunk driving, why is the DOT going after anyone who drinks before driving?

In fact, these project authors from the Southern California Research Institute have a 30-year history of suggesting that alcohol is a very troublesome element in society. Drs. Moskowitz and Burns have been critical of even moderate alcohol consumption prior to driving for nearly three decades. Both researchers have long-established ties to both the public and private arms of the anti-alcohol movement. According to a jointly written article, "Certain skills important for driving are impaired at 0.01 to 0.02 percent BAC or, in other words, at the lowest levels that can be measured reliably." Based on this belief, they have argued strenuously and frequently that any alcohol consumption before driving is too much.

Both researchers have long-established ties to both the public and private arms of the anti-alcohol industry, most significant being their relationship with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). This is one of the lead agencies on alcohol issues for Healthy People 2000, a project of the Department of Health and Human Services, whose stated agenda is to reduce per capita alcohol consumption by 24% from a 1987 baseline. NIAAA is also a proud endorser of the Century Council's "Blood Alcohol Educator" program.