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We do nevertheless have regulations governing the siting of petrol filling stations and the distance with residential premises. The Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines require fire safety consideration to be taken in selecting any site for a petrol filling station, so as to ensure that there are adequate space to permit safe location of tanks, vent pipes, tank fitting point, tank vehicle off-loading stands, pumps and dispensers in relation to both the operation of the station and safety of adjacent premises. In general, petrol filling stations should be situated on open ground or at acceptable areas within commercial or industrial buildings. They will not be allowed inside residential buildings. In addition, the Fire Services Department administers the licensing of petrol filling stations vigorously under the Dangerous Goods Ordinance and in line with the Marketing Safety Code issued by the Institute of Petroleum. Tank openings and dispensers should be located so that their centre lines are not less than 4.25m from any fixed source of ignition or from the boundary of the premises. Where such safety distance cannot be provided, stringent fire protection measures such as automatic foam water spray system and complete separation from other parts of buildings by materials having a fire resisting period of four hours are required.
With regard to health risk, there are some evidence in overseas countries that repeated long term exposure to high benzene concentration, particularly in confined spaces, may result in death or leukaemia. The emphasis is however on high concentration and long term exposure. A release of benzene in a single incident from a low concentration compound in our petrol will not give rise to significant health risks. The main concern associated with petrol filling stations is fire safety, and as I have said earlier, we already have very stringent controls in this regard.
End/Wednesday, May 17, 1995
Use of Chinese language in Government departments
Following is a question by the Hon Man Sai-cheong and a reply by the Secretary for Civil Services, Mr Michael Sze, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
In view of the fact that Chinese and English are both official languages under the Official Languages Ordinance and Article 9 of the Basic Law, will the Government inform this Council whether it has a specific timetable to fully implement the use of Chinese in government departments; if so, what the details are, and whether it will adopt a periodic review of the progress; if not, why not?