Press Releases
Government releases latest blood test results of citizens affected by lead in drinking water incident
The Government today (January 6) released the latest blood test results of
citizens affected by the lead in drinking water incident. The results
involved one sample from a pregnant woman who is a teaching staff member of
a secondary school and showed a normal blood lead level. Details are in the
Annex.
Taking reference from medical literature as well as local and overseas
experience, the Hospital Authority (HA) and the Department of Health (DH)
have derived the reference values of blood lead levels and corresponding
actions to be taken in various healthcare settings.
According to established measures, the DH will perform lead exposure
assessment for all citizens with borderline raised blood lead levels, and
will arrange preliminary developmental assessment if they are children aged
under 12. The HA will arrange health evaluation and follow-up for citizens
with borderline raised blood lead levels who are children aged 12 or above,
adults, pregnant women or lactating women, and arrange ongoing blood lead
level monitoring for those persons with borderline raised blood lead levels.
As regards citizens whose blood lead levels had been found to be borderline
raised, the HA has, according to established measures under the care plan,
continued to monitor their blood lead levels after the first blood test. For
children aged below 18 and lactating women, blood lead level testing would
be conducted in three months' time, and repeated according to clinical
assessment, until their blood lead levels return to normal. For pregnant
women, they will receive follow-up blood tests until their blood lead levels
return to normal. In the latest batch of review cases covering two samples,
both showed normal blood lead levels.
Members of the public may call the DH's hotline (2125 1122) regarding lead
and its health effects. Appointments for blood tests for those who belong to
the more easily affected groups and are living in affected public rental
housing estates can also be made by calling the hotline. As at 5pm today,
the DH had arranged 5 864 appointments for blood testing and the hotline had
received 7 915 enquiries.
Ends/Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Issued at HKT 18:59
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