Canadian scientists just made a device that sobers you up just by exhaling alcohol

Almost all of us have at least one story that starts with “I’ll only have one drink” and ends with your face in a toilet bowl. But what if you could just exhale your way to sobriety? Canadian scientists have developed the ClearMate device, which is capable of treating severe intoxication, simply by helping someone breathe out most of the alcohol in their system.

According to medical professionals at the University of Toronto and Thornhill Medical Inc., their new machine speeds up the process by helping a patient safely hyperventilate through a fitted gas mask attached to oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Now, most of us are of the belief that the liver is the only organ to break down toxins like alcohol – but that isn’t entirely true! Your lungs play a small part in this as well.

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You know when, no matter how many times you brush your teeth, you just can’t seem to get rid of your rank whisky breath?

This actually happens when the blood that has been saturated by alcohol reaches your internal airbags to be replenished with fresh oxygen.  Basically, if your lungs were a car wash, your blood would be the vehicle and your breath would be the dirty water being washed away.

If you breathe more heavily at a faster rate, you can move from rainbow bubbles to the drying cycle in a flash – but it’s important that you don’t try this recreationally.

Hyperventilating without the assistant of a machine like the ClearMate device will only cause you to pass out from a lack of oxygen. You can’t just breathe in and out really fast after having a few beers so that you can drive home. That will not work! 

According to their complete study, which you can read here, despite the device being approved by the FDA for helping people with other illnesses like carbon monoxide poisoning, more data will still need to be collected in order to be accepted as a treatment for alcohol poisoning.

This is one to watch, folks. Heck, maybe one day they’ll have a purse-sized version. Until then… don’t hyperventilate at parties, stay safe, and be smart!