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contaminations may not be reaching harmful concentrations. If a scientific study on seafood contamination is to be conducted, one needs to define the portion of the animal to be studied: whether it is the edible portion i.e. the meat, or the useless portions like the gills or guts which expectedly will be at high risks of contamination. One needs to establish a control group which lives in acceptable, if not perfect, environments, and compare the samples under question with the controls.
All these are standard procedures carried out easily in the laboratories of the tertiary educational institutes.
I am grateful to the Director of Urban Services and his staff, for supporting these scientific approaches to practical health problems. It is encouraging to see how the academic could co-operate and support the Urban Service in basic scientific approaches. We have worked out how vegetables should be washed and prepared to achieve the best effects of removing the insecticide contaminations. We believe that the public should be repeatedly educated on this issue so that they would be able to prevent effectively the much dreaded insecticide poisoning. We also finished our study on live sea fishes: whether such live food items obtained from the aquaria of restaurants, markets and fish suppliers were contaminated with pathogens and heavy metals. Our results are encouraging. We would advise our seafood lovers to continue eating their live fishes, irrespective of their sources.
Naturally, thorough cooking is always advisable but one does not need to assume that the meat (I stress, the meat) will be contaminated. Perfect environment is not possible in a market or restaurant. Perfect environment is likewise lost in the Hong Kong waters. Our results showed that the gills and guts of the fishes of different sources were occasionally contaminated, but the meat was uniformly clean and edible, both in the controls and samples. Heavy metal contents i.e. mercury, chromium, lead, cadmium and arsenic are all within acceptable levels. In short, I do not worry about eating live fish, I always eat them cooked because the water in which they swim is not clean enough, I would not eat their gills and guts.
One must realize that our study is aimed at fishes only. Shell fishes have not been studied. The record of shell fishes in Hong Kong about pathogens and heavy metals has not been good. We need to look at shell fishes in the coming year. Shell fish concentrates contaminations during their breathing and feeding processes and is therefore more dangerous. Their viral contents, likewise need to be studied if prevention of Hepatitis A is to be seriously considered, if the incidence of Hepatitis A in future is to be kept below 3,500 a year, which is a record high in 1992.
Another less discussed issue refers to the safety of repeatedly heated oil in oil pans. Some European workers have identified carcinogens in repeatedly heated oil pans. Although the ill effects have never been thoroughly established, carcinogens are carcinogens. They give sufficient worry. Our preliminary laboratory study tends to support the worry but a more in-depth check on the oil pans in town is being carried out. This is another co-operation between the academic scientists and Urban Services Department. When Mr. Chris PATTEN is so confident about eliminating all appointed members, I wish either himself or his successor will make sure that the simple scientific approach to practical health problems achieved through a mutual co-operation between the academics and serving department, may be continued.
When we feel responsible to the Public on health problems, we wish so much to provide a permanent educational centre for the citizens on current health issues. The attraction of this Education Centre lies in the provision of vivid information for our students and any group or individual of the Public on Health Promotion and Hazard Prevention. Anyone having any worry about health, either personal, community or environmental, may drop in, satisfies himself with information available and leaves with confidence and hope. I am pleased to inform colleagues that this concept is being endorsed and pursued by the Department. Hopefully, within my service in this Council, an early prototype of this Health Education Centre (you may call it a 'Museum') will be ready.
With these words, Mr. Chairman, I support the motion.
MR. WONG SHUI-LAI (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, this year, I would like to express my views and comments on urban services, construction of the new airport and constitutional developments.
(1) Urban Services
I wish to comment briefly on several aspects of urban services, namely food hygiene, street cleansing and the control of unlicensed hawkers.
As far as food hygiene is concerned, the work done by the Urban Services Department during the past year is commendable. Legislation introduced to ban the use of broken utensils in restaurants and eating establishments set the minds of both customers and employees at ease.
As for street cleansing, I think there is room for improvement. Last year, I received a large number of complaints about dustiness and massive oil stains on pavements. Take Des Voeux Road West in Sai Ying Pun for example. Despite my forthright complaint, USD personnel took no action to rectify the situation until much later. What is worrying is that pedestrians, elderly people in particular, may easily slip and fall. I take this opportunity to call upon shop operators to exercise self-discipline by regularly removing oil stains made by themselves. Alternatively, USD may do the cleansing and charge the operators for such service. In more serious cases, summonses should be issued. Apart from this, cleanliness of pavements in general has yet to be improved. In the past year, workers washing a pavement has been a rare sight. This is probably due to the introduction of automatic street washing vehicles. One thing USD should pay attention to and make improvement accordingly is that such vehicles can generally clean carriageways only and pavements are therefore neglected.
Page 96 of 126
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Page 96 of 126
Page 96 of 126
169
168
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
contaminations may not be reaching harmful concentrations. If a scientific study on seafood contamination is to be conducted, one needs to define the portion of the animal to be studied: whether it is the edible portion i.e. the meat, or the useless portions like the gills or guts which expectedly will be at high risks of contamination. One needs to establish a control group which lives in acceptable, if not perfect, environments, and compare the samples under question with the controls.
All these are standard procedures carried out easily in the laboratories of the tertiary educational institutes.
I am grateful to the Director of Urban Services and his staff, for supporting these scientific approaches to practical health problems. It is encouraging to see how the academic could co-operate and support the Urban Service in basic scientific approaches. We have worked out how vegetables should be washed and prepared to achieve the best effects of removing the insecticide contaminations. We believe that the public should be repeatedly educated on this issue so that they would be able to prevent effectively the much dreaded insecticide poisoning. We also finished out study on live sea fishes: whether such live food items obtained from the aquaria of restaurants, markets and fish suppliers were contaminated with pathogens and heavy metals. Our results are encouraging. We would advise our seafood lovers to continue eating their live fishes, irrespective of their sources.
Naturally, thorough cooking is always advisable but one does not need to assume that the meat (I stress, the meat) will be contaminated. Perfect environment is not possible in a market or restaurant. Perfect environment is likewise lost in the Hong Kong waters. Our results showed that the gills and guts of the fishes of different sources were occasionally contaminated, but the meat was uniformly clean and edible, both in the controls and samples. Heavy metal contents i.e. mercury, chromium, lead, cadmium and arsenic are all within acceptable levels. In short, I do not worry eating live fish, I always eat them cooked because the water in which they swim is not clean enough, I would not eat their gills and guts.
One must realize that our study is aimed at fishes only. Shell fishes have not been studied. The record of shell fishes in Hong Kong about pathogens and heavy metals has not been good. We need to look at shell fishes in the coming year. Shell fish concentrates contaminations during their breathing and feeding processes and is therefore more dangerous. Their viral contents, likewise need to be studied if prevention of Hepatitis A is to be seriously considered, if the incidence of Hepatitis A in future is to be kept below 3 500 a year, which is record high in 1992.
Another less discussed issue refers to the safety of repeatedly heated oil in oil pans. Some European workers have identified carcinogens in repeatedly heated oil pans. Although the ill effects have never been thoroughly established, carcinogens are carcinogens. They give sufficient worry. Our preliminary laboratory study tends to support the worry but a more in-depth check on the
Page 96 of 126
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
oil pans in town is being carried out. This is another co-operation between the academic scientists and Urban Services Department. When Mr. Chris PATTEN is so confident about eliminating all appointed members, I wish either himself or his successor will make sure that the simple scientific approach to practical health problems achieved through a mutual co-operation between the academics and serving department, may be continued.
When we feel responsible to the Public on health problems, we wish so much to provide a permanent educational centre for the citizens on current health issues. The attaction of this Education Centre lies in the provision of vivid information for our students and any group or individual of the Public on Health Promotion and Hazard Prevention. Anyone having any worry about health, either personal, community or environmental, may drop in, satisfies himself with information available and leaves with confidence and hope. I am pleased to inform colleagues that this concept is being endorsed and pursued by the Department. Hopefully, within my service in this Council, an early prototype of this Health Education Centre (you may call it a 'Museum') will be ready.
With these words, Mr. Chairman, I support the motion.
MR. WONG SHUI-LAI (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, this year, I would like to express my views and comments on urban services, construction of the new airport and constitutional developments.
(1) Urban Services
I wish to comment briefly on several aspects of urban services, namely food hygiene, street cleansing and the control of unlicensed hawkers.
As far as food hygiene is concerned, the work done by the Urban Services Department during the past year is commendable. Legislation introduced to ban the use of broken utensils in restaurants and eating establishments set the minds of both customers and employees at ease.
As for street cleansing, I think there is room for improvement. Last year, I received a large number of complaints about dustiness and massive oil stains on pavements. Take Des Voeux Road West in Sai Ying Pun for example. Despite my forthright complaint, USD personnel took no action to rectify the situation until much later. What is worrying is that pedestrians, elderly people in particular, may easily slip and fall. I take this opportunity to call upon shop operators to exercise self-discipline by regularly removing oil stains made by themselves. Alternatively, USD may do the cleansing and charge the operators for such service. In more serious cases, summonses should be issued. Apart from this, cleanliness of pavements in general has yet to be improved. In the past year, workers washing a pavement has been a rare sight. This is probably due to the introduction of automatic street washing vehicles. One thing USD should pay attention to and make improvement accordingly is that such vehicles can generally clean carriageways only and pavements are therefore neglected.
Page 96 of 126
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