18-07-2015
The Secretary for Health Ko Wing-man says the Hospital Authority will start taking blood samples from more residents living in Kai Ching Estate in Kowloon City, the first public housing estate found to have excessive amounts of lead in its water supply in some of its units.
Dr Ko said so far over 800 residents across the estate have registered with the government for blood tests, and will have their blood samples taken in stages at two public hospitals.
He also said experts from the Hospital Authority and the Department of Health have been studying international references to try to work out a new safety threshold for lead concentrations in blood.
Dr Ko added that the government laboratory can only process about 300 blood samples a week.
Although they have been contacting private laboratories to handle more samples, Dr Ko said he couldn't guarantee that all residents other than children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers would be arranged blood tests as well, because more housing estates might be involved in the lead-contamination scare, and that private laboratories could offer only limited help.
http://rthk.hk/rthk/news/englishnews/20150718/news_20150718_56_1117020.htm
