XN000022-1988-03-09 — Page 22

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1988

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"IN THE NATURE OF THINGS THESE ADDITIONAL BENEFITS ARE AT EMPLOYER'S DISCRETION.

THE

BY

"ANY EMPLOYEE WHO FEARS THAT HIS EMPLOYER MAY NOT ABIDE HIS PROMISES SHOULD ENSURE THAT THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF HIS EMPLOYMENT ARE CLEARLY STATED IN THE EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT. THIS AFFORDS SUFFICIENT LEGAL PROTECTION,

H HE SAID.

MR BRIDGE SAID THE EMPLOYMENT ODRINANCE WAS KEPT UNDER CONSTANT REVIEW BY THE LABOUR DEPARTMENT IN CONSULTATION WITH THE LABOUR ADVISORY BOARD.

"IT IS AMENDED FROM TIME TO TIME SO AS TO PROVIDE IMPROVED BENEFITS AND ELIMINATE LOOPHOLES.

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IF MEMBERS HAVE SPECIFIC SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS THE LABOUR DEPARTMENT WILL ALWAYS BE HAPPY TO CONSIDER THEM, HE ADDED.

"

WAX NOW USED IN SCHOOL SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS

* * * * *

THE SCIENCE SYLLABUS FOR SECONDARY 1-3 HAS RECENTLY BEEN UPDATED AND EXPERIMENTS TO DETERMINE THE MELTING POINT OF A SUBSTANCE NOW USE WAX INSTEAD OF NAPHTHALENE, THE SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AND WELFARE, THE HON JOHN CHAMBERS, TOLD THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL TODAY (WEDNESDAY).

IN A WRITTEN REPLY TO A QUESTION FROM DR THE HON CHIU HIN-KWONG, MR CHAMBERS SAID THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT WAS AWARE THAT EXPOSURE TO NAPHTHALENE MIGHT CAUSE HAEMOLYSIS (DESTRUCTION OF BLOOD CELLS) IN CHILDREN WHO SUFFERED FROM A. G6PD (GLUCOSE-6-PHOSPHATE DEHYDROGENASE) DEFICIENCY.

THE PHYSICS SYLLABUS FOR SECONDARY 4-5 HAD ALSO BEEN REVIEWED AND EXPERIMENTS INVESTIGATING THE COOLING CURVE OF NAPHTHALENE (A SUBSTANCE USED IN, FOR EXAMPLE, MOTHBALLS) HAD BEEN REPLACED WITH AN EXPERIMENT BASED ON THE USE OF N-OCTADECYL ALCOHOL.

"THESE CHANGES WILL BE REFLECTED IN THE REVISED SYLLABUS WHICH WILL BE READY FOR DISTRIBUTION TO SCHOOLS THIS SUMMER, TH HE SAID.

MR CHAMBERS SAID THAT IN ADDITION, PUBLISHERS OF

•

SCHOOL TEXT WERE REGULARLY ADVISED

MAKING REFERENCES TO EXPERIMENTS USING NAPHTHALENE.

BOOKS

ΤΟ

AVOID

/SCHOOL INSPECTORS