KATHMANDU, Feb 9: Everyday, over 100 people arrested on suspicion of committing offences under the influence of alcohol are taken to the Bir Hospital to test blood alcohol content. A similar number of people are taken to the emergency ward of the Tribhuwan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) everyday.
But both these hospitals do not have laboratory facilities to test blood alcohol content of the offenders.
Worse still, the country´s two forensic laboratories also do not have the facilities to conduct such a test.
The breathalyzers used by traffic police is not internally recognized and tests conducted by them cannot be produced as legal evidence, according to doctors. The breathalyzers are unreliable as sometimes they detect the smell even two days after a person drinks alcohol.
In the absence of proper technology, doctors produce reports by watching the clinical behavior of offenders brought to the hospitals.
“We smell their breath, see the redness in their face and eyes, ask them to button their shirt,” emergency ward in-charge of the Bir Hospital, Dr Dhurba Singh said. “Sometimes we also ask the suspected offenders to write their names and to walk along a straight line,” he added. He also added that some people become talkative when they are drunk.
But social drinkers do not show such symptoms.
Dr Singh concedes that methods used by them to test whether a person is under the influence of alcohol are not scientific.
The country´s two forensic laboratories -- Nepal Police Science Laboratory (NPSL) and National Forensic Science Laboratory (NFSL) -- also do not have facilities to test blood alcohol content in a person´s body.
“We don´t have equipment and other system to know the level of alcohol in a person´s blood, nor do we have experts to detect it,” Dr Harihar Osti, a forensic expert with the NPSL said.
Dr Osti said a majority of those brought to the hospital are drink driving offenders.
Courts also seek doctors´ reports to corroborate the accusation of the police. But doctors do not have scientific basis to substantiate their claim.
Dr Osti also reveled the forensic labs in the country do not have the facility to detect whether a person´s death is caused by consuming poison. The NPSL has to conduct post mortems for that.
“Even if someone puts poison in the viscera taken out from the dead body, our lab gives negative report,” Dr Osti claimed.
Additionally, the government has not fixed what level of alcohol in blood should warrant legal action. In fact, there is no law in the country regarding how much alcohol a person can legally consume.
http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=28059
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