Local health officials and bartenders disagree about the effect of a recent proposal to lower Iowa’s blood alcohol limit from .10 to .08.

The proposal has been sent to the Iowa House of Representatives for consideration. It came in response to a federal law requiring states to adopt a .08 blood alcohol limit or risk losing federal dollars for road improvements. If the proposal does not pass, Iowa could lose approximately $44 million from fiscal year 2004 to fiscal year 2007, said Deana Gray-Fisher, director of media and marketing services with the Iowa Department of Transportation.

The federal money is used for road maintenance and repairs, she said. A loss of such a large amount of money would mean a reduction of nearly 2,000 jobs in both the construction and road building industries, Gray-Fisher said.

“The DOT is supporting the change because of the loss of federal funding,” she said.

Brian Dunn, health promotion coordinator for the Thielen Student Health Center, said it would take a 160- to 180-pound man three drinks in one hour to reach the proposed blood alcohol limit of .08.

“That statistic doesn’t take into account whether or not the man has eaten or how much of that weight is fat,” he said.

Dunn said a person with a blood alcohol level of .08 is three times more likely to have an alcohol-related accident than someone who has not consumed alcohol.

“At .10 you are two times more likely to have an accident than with a blood-alcohol content of .08,” Dunn said.

According to the Mothers Against Drunk Driving Web site, 35 states and the District of Columbia have adopted .08 blood alcohol limits, and states that have adopted the .08 limit have seen a six to eight percent reduction in alcohol-related traffic deaths.

Dunn said although allowing people to drive with a .08 blood alcohol is still unsafe, it is safer than the current standard.

“People who now try to stay at the .10 blood-alcohol limit might estimate incorrectly and actually drive at .13. It’s very hard to determine,” he said.

“If we’ve lowered that limit now people may actually be driving at .10 when they’re think their blood-alcohol content is .08.”

Cory Walton, bartender at Whiskey River, disagreed.

“[The difference between .08 and .10] is just a matter of one drink and it depends on the person,” he said.

Lowering the blood alcohol limit to .08 won’t keep drunk drivers off the roads, said Walton, senior in elementary education.

“It’s only going to get more people in trouble,” he said. “People don’t stop drinking because they think they’re past their limit.”