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of Commerce and Industry with a view to ensuring that exporters are not handicapped for want of information regarding the health standards required of their export products, and also to make available for them the type of certificates that are required to satisfy the importing countries. We must always ensure that the safety and quality standards of food products exported are kept as high as possible, and this means that they must be manufactured under the most hygienic conditions.
This type of certification may well have to be extended to such locally made products as liquid filled toys and plastic drink coolers, the contents of which, though of course not strictly items of food or drink, can, through accident or misuse, be ingested and, if seriously contaminated, cause illness; the consequent publicity being damaging to our export trade.
Hong Kong also imports a great variety of food-stuffs and this raises many problems of control, one of which is in connection with the concentration of preservatives that they might contain. Excess of certain preservatives in food can, of course, be harmful, and in the past the standards of what is permitted have been based entirely on British legislation. However, far from all our imports come from Britain and other countries have different standards. For this reason the legislation concerned with preservatives in food is now being examined in order to devise standards which will permit the free import of food supplies from the greatest number of countries and, at the same time, ensure that there is no risk to the consumer.
Dr. BELL asked if the Council would refuse to license a food factory in domestic premises particularly in multi-storey buildings. The answer to that question is yes as far as it is within our powers to do so.
We are determined to do all we can within these powers to stop the misuse of residential flats for businesses such as food factories which cause a nuisance to their neighbours. I may add that in this matter we now have the full support of the Commissioner of Labour and the Director of Fire Services.
Mrs. Ellen Li in her comments on good house keeping, suggested the introduction of a Central Licensing System so as to bring the licensing of all establishments such as hotels, boarding houses, bars, dancing schools, mahjong schools, bath-houses, etc. under one authority which she considered should be the Urban Council. There is a lot of merit in this suggestion. There are, however, some difficulties envisaged as the licensing of many of these concerns is required for different reasons. There is no doubt for example that the Council should be the Authority for licensing where public health is involved and the staff of the Department have already got their work cut out to deal with the issue of many types of licences and to supervise the premises when licensed, but I would regard with some misgiving a proposal that the Council should be the responsible body in licensing matters in which their staff is not expert. This would inevitably lead to difficulties and to a conflict of opinions with those who are more expert in such fields.
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I certainly agree with Mr. Wilfred WONG regarding the necessity for continuous in-service training of the Health Inspectorate though we must always maintain the balance between theoretical and practical training. It is not always easy for an inspector to pursue advanced studies; at the end of a busy day inspecting his district and writing reports he may not feel ready to settle down to even more work. However, I am glad to say that the Training Branch is attacking this problem and, as it were, guiding the staff in their studies by distributing copies of articles of current interest extracted from a variety of Technical Journals. Members are undoubtedly aware that for promotion from Class II to Class I an inspector must possess at least one additional Certificate over and above his qualifying diploma and to obtain this alone needs considerable study for the required examination. One reason for training our staff to a good technical standard is so that they can pass on their knowledge to the public; it is essential that they should understand the reasons for the regulations they are trying to apply and for the advice on health matters that they are expected to give the public. This is a most vital aspect of health education; the personal contact between a Health Inspector and the Licensee or a House-holder is worth far more than a glance at a poster or a pamphlet.
On the subject of health education, Dr. Woo emphasizes the need to broaden our outlook and our range of activity, and I fully agree that this should be a foremost aim. No health service of a local authority, however comprehensive and streamlined, can fulfil its mission efficiently without public co-operation for health depends far less on laws and regulations than on an enlightened attitude of mind.
The public as well as health workers need to be aware of the value and importance of prevention in all its spheres and be keen to promote better conditions in their surroundings. I feel that the subject of Health Education in Schools is still apt to be treated too lightly. If, perhaps, it could find a place among those subjects in the school curriculum which are tested by examination, its status might be raised to a more important level. The importance of mass media in making the public more health conscious must also not be neglected; we must continually be on the look-out for new methods and instil sufficient novelty and variety into our publicity so that familiarity will not breed contempt and our health teaching fall on deaf ears. In this respect we rely greatly on the willing and expert advice of the Director of Information Services and his staff.
Mr. MARDEN spoke on air and water pollution and Dr. BELL referred to an answer to a question given by the Chairman at the July
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