EMILY TSANG EMILY.TSANG@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Monday, 03 August, 2015, 5:36pm
UPDATED : Monday, 03 August, 2015, 7:14pm
(From left) Hung Hom Estate Phase 2, Shek Kip Mei Estate and Tung Wui Estate. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Another 33 residents at Hong Kong public housing estates have recorded blood lead levels that exceed safety limits, health authorities announced today.
The city also added three more names – all in Kowloon – to a list of public residential estates where tap water had been found to contain concentrations of the toxic metal that were above the World Health Organisation standard of 10 micrograms per litre.
For healthy adults, levels exceeding 10mcg of lead are considered a potential health risk – but for children below six years old, breastfeeding mothers and pregnant women, the safety cap is lower, at 5mcg.
Out of 294 people who took free blood tests last week, 24 children below six years, eight breastfeeding mothers and one pregnant woman exceeded the 5mcg limit, the government said in its latest update of the tests.
The data pushed the total number of Hongkongers who lived on the affected estates and had excessive lead in their blood to 96.
Residents of the Shek Kip Mei Estate Phase 2, where excessive levels of lead have been found in the water supply. Photo: Nora Tam
Seven public housing estates in the city are now found to have unsafe levels of lead in their tap water.
The latest three are Shek Kip Mei Estate Phase 2, Tung Wui Estate in Wong Tai Sin and Hung Hom Estate Phase 2.
The other four are Kai Ching Estate in Kowloon City, Kwai Luen Estate Phase 2 in Kwai Chung, Wing Cheong Estate in Sham Shui Po, and Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate Phase 1.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1846137/33-more-hongkongers-found-blood-lead-levels
