Traditional Chinese Simplified Chinese Email this article news.gov.hk
LCQ1: Sensor-activated hand-washing facilities
**********************************************

     Following is a question by the Hon Albert Chan and an oral reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (June 17):

Question:

     I have learnt that most of the toilets in the venues under Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, Leisure and Cultural Services Department, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and Housing Department as well as most of those in various Government Offices do not have facilities such as automatic sensor water taps, automatic sensor or manually-operated soap dispensers and electric hand dryers.  Quite a number of members of the public have relayed to me that such toilets have a rather heavy flow of people but do not have the aforesaid sanitary facilities, and they are worried that diseases spread easily through these toilets.  In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the respective numbers of toilets without the aforesaid sanitary facilities, as well as the respective percentages of such numbers in the total number of the toilets in the aforesaid venues, broken down by government department and the type of sanitary facility;

(b) of the reasons for not installing such sanitary facilities in these toilets; and

(c) whether it will expeditiously install such sanitary facilities in these toilets, so as to reduce the chance of diseases spreading; if it will, of the timetable; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

President,

     Sensor-activated hand-washing facilities are convenient to use, and can effectively prevent re-contamination of washed hands as there is no need for direct contact with hand-washing facilities.  However, in considering whether sensor-activated hand-washing facilities should be installed, we have to take into account a variety of factors, including physical constraints, technical feasibility, system reliability, and installation and maintenance costs.  In fact, according to the latest Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care issued by the World Health Organisation in May this year, manually-operated taps are considered the optimal standard within health care settings to ensure a continuous water supply.  Meanwhile, when sensor-activated hand-washing facilities break down, users will not be able to complete the hand-washing procedure, therefore these facilities may pose more serious hidden health risks.  The reply to each part of the question is set out below: -

(a) The vast majority of the public toilets under the management of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) and Housing Authority (HA) and of the visitors' toilets in Government joint-user office buildings under the management of the Government Property Agency (GPA) are provided with basic and up-to-standard hand-washing facilities, including sensor-activated or manually-operated taps, liquid soap or hand sanitisers, and hand dryers or paper towels.  The number of public toilets without sensor-activated taps, sensor-activated or manually-operated soap dispensers or electric hand dryers, and their percentages in the total number of public toilets are set out in the table attached to the reply.

(b) & (c) The constraints of sensor-activated hand-washing facilities have been mentioned above.  In fact, the spread of disease can also be prevented if the manually-operated hand-washing facilities are used properly, such as wrapping the faucet with paper towel or splashing water to clean it before turning the tap off.  In addition, the provision of elbow- or foot-activated taps in some hospitals also helps prevent direct contact with hand-washing facilities by hands.

     At present, toilets under the management of FEHD which are not equipped with sensor-activated taps, manually-operated soap dispensers or electric hand dryers are mainly flushing toilets converted from aqua privies in earlier periods or aqua privies yet to be converted into flushing toilets.  Since 2000-01, these hand-washing facilities have already been provided in newly built, reprovisioned or refurbished toilets (including those in the public markets and other venues of FEHD) as well as flushing toilets converted from aqua privies.  To step up disease prevention efforts, FEHD has already installed hand sanitisers at all of its public toilets and aqua privies.

     Public toilets under the management of the LCSD, AFCD and HA as well as visitors' toilets in Government joint-user office buildings under the management of GPA have been provided with the basic and up-to-standard hand-washing facilities, including sensor-activated or manually-operated taps, liquid soap and electric hand dryers or paper towel.  To better protect public health, the departments concerned will clean and disinfect the public toilet facilities regularly.

     While the provision of appropriate hardware facilities is important, adopting good hygiene practices and raising personal hygiene awareness are also indispensable in the fight against the spread of disease.  In particular, the proper hand-washing procedure is the key to maintaining personal hygiene.  In this respect, the Department of Health has been promoting the proper hand-washing procedure to the public through announcements of public interest on television and radio, posters, pamphlets, booklets and webpage, etc.  In view of the global and local situation of human swine influenza, the Administration sent a booklet entitled "Keep Clean, Be Healthy" to all households in Hong Kong in May this year, reminding members of the public of the guidelines on personal and home hygiene, including the proper hand-washing procedure.

     We consider that all public toilets should be equipped with basic and up-to-standard hand-washing facilities, including sensor-activated or manually-operated taps, liquid soap or hand sanitisers, and hand dryers or paper towels.  As such, we plan to gradually provide these hand-washing facilities in those public toilets without such facilities during the refurbishment and maintenance works.  For instance, in building new toilets, reprovisioning or refurbishing the existing toilets and converting aqua privies into flushing toilets, FEHD will install infra-red sensor-activated taps, soap dispensers and electric hand dryers whenever the circumstances permit.  Toilets in the public markets and other venues managed by FEHD will also be provided with such facilities under the regular maintenance and repair programmes.  Currently, about 20 public toilets are refurbished by FEHD each year.  Besides, FEHD has been implementing a programme to convert aqua privies into flushing toilets since 2005, with the aim to convert all aqua privies into flushing toilets by 2012-13.

Ends/Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Issued at HKT 15:01

NNNN

Print this page