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Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, at a media stand-up session in the Legislative Council Building today (March 17):
Reporter: (on people queuing up to buy salt)
Secretary for Food and Health: I think buying large quantities of salt for whatever reason is totally unfounded. First of all, people worry about whether the salt supply might be affected. I do not think it will be affected because the contamination of the sea water around Japan will be much diluted or washed off after some time. So it will not affect the supply of salt in the world as a whole. Secondly, there is a certain belief that salt might contain iodide and this might protect humans from radiation. But this is totally unfounded, both scientifically and medically. The reason why iodide tablets are required is for people who work very closely to the source of radiation. In case they might be exposed to radiation, they need to take the tablets six hours before the exposure and within six hours after the exposure. This is only for people who are very close to very high levels of radiation. So it is not applicable to any general public at all.
Reporter: (on how to prevent radiation)
Secretary for Food and Health: As I said, there is no antidote or any specific measures that individuals can take in regard to radiation hazard. It is important to monitor the situation. Information gathered from Japan and some other governments and scientific institutions indicates that the hazard to Hong Kong directly from radiation is extremely low, and perhaps negligible at the moment. There might be a situation - just as I have mentioned earlier on - where we have imported food or articles that might be contaminated. But as I said, with the existing system of surveillance and all the measures we have taken, the chance of contaminated products reaching Hong Kong is very low. Even in the case of slightly contaminated products being ingested by our citizens, the chance of getting any health effect is actually quite low, particularly if it is only a one-off ingestion. The most important thing is to detect (contamination) early and inform the public. At the same time, if we feel that any particular product or any food is actually of high risk, we will have to exercise our discretion to ban those imports.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Thursday, March 17, 2011
Issued at HKT 16:40
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