June 10, 2005 KATHMANDU: Health workers, technicians and patients are always at a risk of contracting diseases due to radiation from medical equipment like Radio therapy, X-Ray, and CT-Scan machines used for diagnosis in many medical institutions, a survey said. According to a survey conducted recently by the department of radiology and imaging of the Bir hospital in the zonal, regional and 10 valley hospitals, workers and patients are receiving the maximum permissible dose of radiation set by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). The ICRP has set 20 millisievert (unit) a year as the permissible dose. There must be a radiation monitoring body if the radiation crosses 10 per cent of the permissible 20 millisievert. “It has already crossed that limit in Nepal, which is very dangerous and most of the patients as well as health workers are not aware of its adverse effects,” Budha Ram Shah, researcher at the Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology told The Himalayan Times. “We currently don’t have any radiation monitoring body,” he said. The X-Ray departments are relatively safe but those working in Fluoroscopic X-Ray departments are almost crossing the limit set by the ICRP. Fair opens new avenues for students KATHMANDU: The three-day long Education and Career Fair kicked off at Birendra International Convention Centre (BICC) today. The event is being organised by Direction Nepal Pvt Ltd to explore educational opportunities and to inform students of better career options. Media coordinator of Direction Nepal Pvt Ltd, Sulochhana Theeng informed that the main objective of the fair is to provide ‘education counselling to students who are looking for higher studies’. “The fair, to run till Sunday, aims to open avenues for better educational opportunities and better career prospects,” said Theeng. She said that this is the third time a fair of this sort is being held in the country. The event will attract over 50,000 visitors, she informed. A total of 95 educational institutions and higher secondary schools are participating, with their products and services, in the fair. Besides this, scholarship programmes, close-up inter school-college competition, music context, Camlin inter school-college competition, art contest, photo exhibition, science exhibition and exhibitions of other education-related materials will take place. Nirmal Shrestha, facilitation manager of Universal Language and Computer Institute, commented that the exhibition would help students become more competitive, as various services and products offered by educational institutions would be exhibited under one roof.