56
EMPLOYMENT
provide the practical degree of control required to cope with the present problem and will enable the Labour Department gradually, as industrial premises become available, to persuade factories in- adequately housed in buildings never intended for industrial use to move into proper industrial premises where they may be fully registered.
Amendments to the Workmen's Compensation Ordinance and the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance to cover occupational diseases were being finalized at the end of the year and draft legislation concerning recruitment and contracts for over- seas employment was in an advanced stage.
SAFETY, HEALTH AND WELFARE
Industrial health. The protection of workers' health in work- places and the detection and prevention of occupational diseases are the particular concern of the industrial health section of the Labour Department which also has an important secondary role in solving the attendant medical and social problems of persons injured in occupational accidents. Health control of working en- vironments is maintained by routine inspection of selected-indus- trial undertakings, supported by field surveys and atmospheric monitoring where necessary. Special instruments are used to collect and measure atmospheric dust, fumes and gases, to record tem- perature, humidity and air velocities, and to measure levels of radioactivity.
The provision of adequate first-aid arrangements in factories is encouraged, and first-aid training classes for industrial workers are organized in conjunction with the St John Ambulance Association. Since these classes were started in 1956, a total of 886 workers have obtained first-aid certificates. The need for first-aid rooms or clinics is now recognized by local industry and the larger firms provide them. Under the Industrial Employment (Holidays with Pay and Sickness Allowance) Ordinance, 1961, applications from industrial undertakings for recognition of medical treatment schemes are considered.
Periodic physical examinations, blood tests and urine examina- tions were carried out on lead workers and workers handling radio- active substances or X-ray apparatus and, following the introduc- tion of fluoridation of urban water in 1962, a survey was made