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Press
Releases - 2000
Hong
Kong coastal sediments not so polluted as reported
A spokesman
for the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) said today
(March 22) that some figures quoted by Greenpeace as regards
pollution in the coastal sediments of Hong Kong were incorrect.
At an
earlier meeting between the EPD and Greenpeace at the Chemical
Waste Treatment Centre on Tsing Yi Island, Greenpeace presented
the EPD with a copy of their report entitled "Unseen Poisons
in Asia - a review of persistent organic pollutant levels
in South and Southeast Asia and Oceania."
As the
EPD had doubts about some of the concentrations of organochlorines
quoted in the report, it checked them against the original
scientific publications cited in the report.
"It found
that the results for DDT (Dicholorodiphenyltrichloroethane)
and HCHs (Hexachlorocyclohexane) in Hong Kong's near shore
sediments and in some Mainland river sediments have been over-reported
by 1 000 times. DDT and HCHs are both pesticides that were
banned from use in Hong Kong in 1987 and 1991 respectively.
"The
concentration of DDT in Hong Kong coastal sediments as reported
by the scientific publications should be 0.27 ng/g dry weight
(dry wt) to 14.8 ng/g dry wt, rather than 300 ng/g dry wt
to 14 800 ng/g dry wt as noted in the Greenpeace report.
"As for
HCHs, the figures should be 0.1 ng/g dry wt to 16.7 ng/g dry
wt rather than 100 ng/g dry wt to 16 700 ng/g dry wt," the
spokesman said.
But results
for other areas of the world, which appear alongside the data
for Chinese rivers in the source document quoted by Greenpeace,
are accurately reported.
The spokesman
said: "While Greenpeace's report gives values for high levels
of PCBs (Polychlorinated Biphenyls) found in several Asian
locations, it does not report the relatively low levels found
in Hong Kong coastal sediments and Mainland river sediments,
even though these appear in the publications they use as their
source references for contamination by DDT and HCHs.
"The
EPD is very concerned that such selective quoting and misquoting
may have misled the public.
"The
coastal sediments in Hong Kong are no more polluted by these
toxic substances than the sediments in other areas in the
world cited in the Greenpeace report," the spokesman added.
End/Wednesday,
March 22, 2000
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