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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 after attending the meeting of the Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene of the Legislative Council today (April 12):
Reporter: (on stepping up efforts on surveillance on the radiation leakage incident in Japan)
Secretary for Food and Health: We assess the risk of radiation by both the direct effect as well as the indirect effect. According to the existing assessment, the direct effect, for example from the air current or ocean current, that will affect Hong Kong is extremely slim. So the direct effect is negligible. But we will have to concentrate on the indirect effect which is relating to goods and food that are being affected by radiation and then shipped into Hong Kong. At the moment, we will concentrate on the food supply from Japan and I will have the opportunity to meet the Consul General of Japan in the next few days to ascertain the exact issues that they are facing in Japan and the exact reason why they have to elevate the warning level to Level 7. On the other aspect, we are also concerned about the neighbouring territories and countries of Japan that might be affected by radiation and whether food supply from those areas will be shipped to Hong Kong. These include Korea and also the northeastern part of the Mainland. I think these are the areas that we will have to assess.
Reporter: (on the need for a 100% checking of all food)
Secretary for Food and Health: My colleagues will be meeting with the authorities in the Mainland to assess what type of action level we can both agree upon. The risk assessment is basically depending on the level of radiation that would be detected in a certain place. So if the radiation level is very low in all parts of the Mainland, we do not need to worry too much about this. At the moment, it is not at such an alarming level yet. Although there is a minute level of radiation and contamination detected in various vegetables in the Mainland, the level is extremely low and would not affect human health. I think the message is that we will continue to monitor the situation and will at the moment concentrate on all the food coming from Japan, and also other products that might pass through Hong Kong from Japan. We will also need to look at the other areas that are in close neighbourhood to Japan.
Reporter: (on enforcement action by officers of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department against and egg waffles hawker)
Secretary for Food and Health: The staff of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department have to maintain law and order according to their duties. If somebody is against the law, they have to take action. According to our experience, there are always some offenders who are repeating offending the same thing. In this case, we do have sympathy for this man because he seems to be very determined to survive on his own instead of taking out welfare. We will see if we can help him to find a legal way of surviving with his existing trade. So it is hoped that we can arrive at some solutions with his understanding. If not, the Government has to really take the safety and hygiene of food sold in that open area into account because we do have some guidelines for handling food in a hygienic way.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Issued at HKT 17:59
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