Another 12 Hong Kong public housing estates to test lead levels in water
Move comes after sample taken in Sham Shui Po found to contain excessive lead
Tests on lead levels in water will be extended to 12 more public housing estates involving 26,000 flats, housing minister Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung said yesterday.
The announcement came after supplies in a fourth public housing estate, Wing Cheong in Sham Shui Po, were found to contain excessive lead levels.
The problematic sample taken from the Housing Authority's branch at the estate has a lead value of 14 micrograms per litre, 40 per cent above the World Health Organisation's guideline of 10 micrograms per litre.
According to Director of Housing Stanley Ying Yiu-hong, who spoke at a joint-departmental press conference, lead was found in soldering materials used in the pipe joints.
Together with the 12 additional estates - all built in 2011 and 2012 - the total number of estates subject to tests on lead levels is now 24.
The lead-in-water scare was sparked two weeks ago when the Democratic Party's Helena Wong Pik-wan found excessive lead levels in Kai Ching Estate, Kowloon City.
Yesterday's discovery came after Cheung said last Wednesday that all 10 public housing estates built on or before 2013 would be tested for lead. Out of those 10, results have been received for seven, with only Wing Cheong returning excessive levels from a water sample.
