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The Government today (December 30) released the latest blood test results of citizens affected by the lead in drinking water incident involving one sample from a lactating woman who is a teaching staff member of a secondary school, which showed a normal blood lead level. Details 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 established measures, the DH will perform lead exposure assessments for all citizens with borderline raised blood lead levels, and will arrange for preliminary developmental assessment if they are children aged under 12. The HA will arrange for 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 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 will be conducted in three months' time, and repeated according to clinical assessment, until their blood lead levels return to normal. Pregnant women 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 149 citizens have been reviewed. The latest batch of review cases concerns two children whose blood lead levels are still borderline raised (at 5.47 and 12.14 micrograms per deciliter respectively). The DH will inform the families of the children's review results. The HA will follow up on the children's health and offer 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 7 907 enquiries.
Ends/Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Issued at HKT 19:01
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