Speeches

Opening remarks by SFH at press conference on excessive lead content in drinking water

Following is the opening remarks by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, at a press conference on excessive lead content in drinking water held today (July 18):

In the light of the recent incident of lead in tap water, both the Government and the public are very concerned about the effect of lead on health. For the current lead in water incident, the Department of Health (DH) and the Hospital Authority (HA) have made arrangements to examine the blood for lead content amongst more easily affected groups, namely children under the age of six, pregnant women and lactating mothers, as well as Kai Ching Estate and Kwai Luen Estate Phase 2 households whose sampled tap water were found to have elevated level of lead. The first batch of households from Kai Ching Estate who were found to have raised water lead levels already had their blood taken and examined. The results of this batch of blood examinations involving a total of nine residents show that the blood lead level is normal, meaning that there is no significant health risk.

In response to this incident, professional staff of HA including paediatricians, Obstetricians and Gynaecologists physicians, pathologists and clinical toxicologists, as well as DH experts worked to develop a management protocol for persons whose blood lead levels would be found to be abnormal. This will be explained in details by our experts present today.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the opening remarks.)

Ends/Saturday, July 18, 2015
Issued at HKT 18:40

NNNN