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With regard to investments made by power companies, the spokesman explained that all major projects proposed by the power companies are scrutinised by ESB, with the support of various government departments and specialist consultants, to ensure that any new power plant proposed is necessary and justifiable taking into account financial, efficiency, environmental and other considerations.
"The Schemes of Control have served consumers well. We have few brown- outs and electricity charges are among the lowest in the south east Asia region. As a matter of fact, electricity charges in Hong Kong have been kept well below inflation in the past 10 years. This amounts to a total reduction of charges in real terms of over 40% since 1985," remarked the spokesman.
End/Wednesday, August 23, 1995
Food surveillance results for the 2nd quarter
The Department of Health today (Wednesday) announced the results of its regular food surveillance programme for the second quarter of 1995.
A total of 9,103 samples were collected for chemical, bacteriological and radioactivity tests during the period.
The programme is conducted by the department's Hygiene Division to monitor that food supplied to the community is wholesome, unadulterated and properly labelled.
Of the 6,050 samples for chemical analyses, 5,998 were satisfactory while 52 tests (0.9%) yielded unsatisfactory results.
The unsatisfactory cases were mainly due to food containing non-permitted or excessive food additives like preservatives and colouring matters. About one-third of the cases involved vegetable samples with prohibited pesticides.
As for the 2,824 samples for bacteriological examinations, 157 samples (5.6%) gave unsatisfactory results.
The unsatisfactory samples were mainly frozen confections, shellfish and fish. Of the unsatisfactory frozen confection samples, the majority was soft ice-cream giving excessive bacterial/coliform count.
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