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machines, in cones to be consumed off the premises—the two latter however seem fortunately so far to be mostly confined to licenced cafes or restaurants and one hopes therefore that they are subject to more strict health supervision than is apparent in the case of the ice cream and popsicles retailed by many small businesses as in resettlement rooms, side recesses on pavements, street vendors etc. It has been my lot to approve the issue of permits to these places at the rate of some 15-20 per week. There are of course certain simple health conditions to be adhered to by the applicant such as providing a suitable refrigerator and not keeping anything else in the same compartment of the refrigerator with the ice cream, etc. but it would seem that after the initial inspection of the premises there is not sufficient regular visiting and certainly not sufficient sampling of ice cream to safeguard the health of the public.
There have been suggestions in the press that owing to the heavy rains having damaged drainage and sewerage that there is a greater danger of an outbreak of typhoid this year than is usually the case. Government has had a strong drive to inoculate persons with anti-typhoid injection, and many persons have attended their own private doctors for such preventive injections. However here in the Council we continue to issue permits for the sale of ice cream etc. and we fail to follow up our obligations to the public to ensure that these products are free from contamination and in fact were there to be an outbreak of typhoid this very same ice cream would undoubtedly provide the best source of the infection because it is a well-known fact that ice-cream constitutes the best possible media for the growth of bacteria. It is true that the low temperature of the refrigerator will probably and fortunately prevent much bacterial growth but not entirely and not always is the temperature as low as it should be; for instance in the case of small ice boxes such as are used by bicycle ice cream vendors the ice cream is often melted and even the cardboard cartons are soggy and wet. Also repeated opening of a refrigerator can cause the temperature to be raised to a dangerous level as also does repeated handling of the ice cream, for instance if someone is persistent about having a chocolate flavoured ice cream and/or a pineapple popsicle—both may be at the bottom of the refrigerator and a good deal of handling may be required before the right one is found; the hands often are not too clean and it often happens that the tops come off the ice cream cartons and have to be stuck on again by the same dirty hands.
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Also I am not too sure that cardboard containers are not sometimes retrieved for further use and also the popsicle sticks, particularly the latest fashioned plastic ones.
It is interesting to note that there are no regulations requiring the retailers of this popular food stuff to undergo any medical examination or anti-typhoid inoculation except in the case of the bicycle vendors. I cannot agree that the latter necessarily constitute such a much greater risk than some of the doubtfully clean places for which we approve permits.
I mentioned the large number of these applications which have been passing through my hands recently. I put it at 15-20 a week. That is to say about 200 new permits have been issued in the last three months. I was therefore interested to know the total number of such permits at present in existence and I was surprised at the lowness of the figures. In Hong Kong, as I am informed, there are 533 and in Kowloon 563, a total of 1,096. If the restaurants and cafes are included then a further figure of 1,125 must be added to the total and there are 286 bicycle vendors making up a grand total of 2,509 vendors of these commodities. If these figures are correct and I am assured by the Secretary that they are, then it should be a very straightforward and simple matter to visit these places regularly for frequent inspection and sampling to ensure freedom from bacteriological contamination. My suggestion is that the word "frequent" should mean once per month at the very least which means a maximum of 60 samples per day. I do not think that considering this will be split into approx. 30 for Kowloon and 30 for Hong Kong that there should be any difficulty in having laboratory facilities available or staff available for this. It should be possible in certain instances to sample as frequently as once per week if the necessity arises.
Since this Council is supposed to be largely concerned with and should be entirely responsible for, the Public Health of the community I therefore move the Motion which stands in my name.
MR. BERNACCHI seconded.
He said: Dr. Bell has already explained in detail the object of her motion which I commend to Members of Council and I therefore exercise my right under Standing Orders to formally second the motion at this stage and reserve any further comments in the event of this Motion being subjected to debate.
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