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The Government today (December 23) released the latest blood test results of citizens affected by the lead in drinking water incident.
The latest batch of blood test results involves four samples from lactating women from teaching staff of secondary schools, all of which show normal blood lead levels. Details of the blood tests are in the Annex.
Taking reference from medical literature as well as local and overseas experience, the Hospital Authority (HA) and the Department of Health (DH) have derived the reference values of blood lead levels and corresponding actions to be taken in various healthcare settings.
According to the established measures, the DH will perform lead exposure assessment for all citizens with borderline raised blood lead levels, and will arrange preliminary developmental assessment if they are children aged under 12. The HA will arrange health evaluation and follow-up for citizens with borderline raised blood lead levels who are children aged 12 or above, adults, pregnant women or lactating women, and arrange ongoing blood lead level monitoring for those persons with borderline raised blood lead levels.
As regards citizens whose blood lead levels had been found to be borderline raised, the HA has, according to established measures under the care plan, continued to monitor their blood lead levels after the first blood test. For children aged below 18 and lactating women, blood lead level testing would be conducted in three months' time, and repeated according to clinical assessment, until their blood lead levels return to normal. For pregnant women, they will receive follow-up blood tests until their blood lead levels return to normal.
As of today, the blood lead levels of a total of 147 citizens have been reviewed. Among the latest batch of review cases covering four samples, three show normal blood lead levels. The blood lead level of a child is still on borderline raised level. His blood lead level in the review is at 5.25 micrograms per decilitre. The DH will inform those concerned of the child's test result in the review. The HA will continue to follow up on the above child whose blood lead level was found to be borderline raised in the review, and will take clinical interventions as appropriate.
Members of the public may call the DH's hotline (2125 1122) regarding lead and its health effects. Appointments for blood tests for those who belong to the more easily affected groups and are living in affected public rental housing estates can also be made by calling the hotline. As at 5pm today, the DH had arranged 5 862 appointments for blood testing and the hotline had received 7 899 enquiries.
Ends/Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Issued at HKT 18:29
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