TNAG-1732-FCO40-2445-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 35

Background radiation in

3. PROF. POON asked :

Hung

it

Will Government inform this Council whether has conducted any study on the level o f background radiation

radiation in Hong Kong in the past five years and if so, what are the results as compared with similar studies carried out in other countries and what impacts the level of background radiation will have on the health of the people of Hong Kong?

REPLY BY THE HONOURABLE THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY -IN LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL WEDNESDAY 8 JUNE 1988–

FINANCIAL SECRETARY :

sir,

7

Since 1961, radioactivity in air and rainwater has stet

been measured by the Royal Observatory. The measurements

have been used

used by

by the

the World Meteorological organization,

together with measurements supplied by other meteorological

stations throughout the world, in order to

to study the global

transportation of radionuclides released into the atmosphere

from nuclear tests. The data have given an indication of how

atmospheric radioactivity in Hong Kong has

has varied over the

years.

X.

Then in 1984, the Government formulated a programme

to study, in detail, the background `radiation in Hong Kong.

The a im O £ this programme is to collect data over a

sufficiently long period, before the

the commissioning of the