As the rainstorm warning has been issued by the Hong Kong Observatory, the Labour Department (LD) reminds employers and contractors that they should adopt necessary work arrangements and take suitable safety measures to protect the safety of their employees when they are carrying out electrical work or handling electrical plant.

     A spokesman for the LD said today (May 4) that employers and contractors should avoid assigning employees to carry out electrical work (like electric arc welding work) or handle electrical plant at places affected by rainstorms, and should refer to the "Code of Practice in times of Typhoons and Rainstorms" and the "Guide on Safety at Work in times of Inclement Weather" issued by the LD.

     Even if electrical work is carried out or electrical plant is handled at places not affected by the rainstorm, suitable safety measures must still be adopted to prevent electric shock as the air would be more humid. Such measures include:

(i) Ensure that all live parts of an electrical installation are isolated from the power supply source and rendered dead, and the isolation from the power supply source must be maintained as long as electrical work is being carried out;

(ii) Before carrying out any electrical work or handling any electrical plant, cut off and lock out the power supply source, then test the circuit concerned to confirm it is dead and display suitable warning notices, and issue a work permit thereafter;

(iii) Ensure that protective devices (such as suitable and adequate fuses and circuit breakers) for the electrical installations or electrical plant have been installed and maintained in good working order, and portable electric tools must be double-insulated or properly earthed;

(iv) Provide suitable personal protective equipment such as insulating gloves and insulating mats for employees; and

(v) If live electrical work is unavoidable, a comprehensive risk assessment should be conducted by a competent person and the appropriate safety precautions should be taken to remove or properly control the electrical hazards involved before such work can proceed.

     In addition, employees should co-operate with the employer or contractor to follow the safety instructions and use the safety equipment provided.

     The LD has published guidebooks and leaflets on electrical work safety. These safety publications are available free from divisional offices of the department or can be downloaded from its website (www.labour.gov.hk/eng/public/content2_8.htm).

     Should there be any questions about occupational safety and health matters, please contact the Occupational Safety Officer of the LD at 2559 2297.

Attention duty announcers, radio and TV stations:

Please broadcast the following as soon as possible and repeat it at suitable intervals:

     Members of the public are advised to report any street flooding that comes to their notice to the Drainage Services Department by calling the 24-hour drainage hotline on 2300 1110.

     The Hong Kong Girl Guides Association has been issued a Public Subscription Permit to hold a territory-wide flag sale from 7am to 12.30pm today (May 4), a spokesman for the Social Welfare Department (SWD) said.
           
     Details of the charitable fund-raising activities, including any updated information, covered by the issued Public Subscription Permits have been published on the GovHK website (www.gov.hk/en/theme/fundraising/search). Permits for flag days containing information on contact methods of the flag-selling organisations and the approved flag-selling activities have also been uploaded to the SWD's website (www.swd.gov.hk/en/ngo/controlofc/flagdays) for reference. For enquiries, please call the SWD's hotline at 2343 2255, or the designated hotline of the 1823 Call Centre at 3142 2678.
           
     In the case of suspected fraudulent flag day activities, people should not make any donation and should immediately report the matter to the Police, the spokesman added.

     The Secretary for Environment and Ecology, Mr Tse Chin-wan, met the Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Mr Takahashi Mitsuo, and the Consul-General of Japan in Hong Kong, Mr Kenichi Okada, today (May 3) upon request and discussed about the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water in Japan.
 
     Mr Tse reiterated at the meeting that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government has come to the view that there is currently no guarantee from the Japanese authorities that their purification and dilution system can operate continuously and effectively in the long term, and that the discharge will not pose any potential risks to food safety and marine ecology. Safeguarding food safety and public health in Hong Kong is the responsibility of the HKSAR Government, thus corresponding precautionary measures must be taken. The HKSAR Government will closely monitor developments of the discharge, so as to obtain more monitoring and scientific data in order to further examine the impact of the Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water discharge on food safety, and keep under review relevant counter measures. Should anomalies be detected, the Government does not preclude further tightening the scope of the import ban.
 
     In response to the Japanese Government's earlier decision to discharge nuclear-contaminated water at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station into the sea, the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene issued a Food Safety Order which prohibits all aquatic products, sea salt and seaweeds originating from the 10 metropolis/prefectures, namely Tokyo, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Miyagi, Chiba, Gunma, Tochigi, Niigata, Nagano and Saitama, from being imported into and supplied in Hong Kong. For other aquatic products, sea salt, and unprocessed or processed seaweed from Japan that are not prohibited from being imported into Hong Kong, the Centre for Food Safety of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will conduct comprehensive radiological tests to verify that the radiation levels of these products do not exceed the guideline levels before they are allowed to be supplied in the market.
 
     Besides, all vegetables, fruits, milk, milk beverages and dried milk originating from Fukushima are banned from importing into Hong Kong while such foods originating from the four prefectures nearby Fukushima, i.e. Ibaraki, Tochigi, Chiba and Gunma, are allowed to be imported on the condition that they are accompanied with a radiation certificate and an exporter certificate issued by the Japanese authority. Chilled or frozen game, meat and poultry, and poultry eggs originating from the above five prefectures are allowed to be imported on the condition that they are accompanied with a radiation certificate issued by the Japanese authority which shows the radiation levels do not exceed the guideline levels of the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

     The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Chan Kwok-ki, together with the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun, and the Head of the Department of Applied Social Sciences and Co-Director of the Policy Research Centre for Innovation and Technology of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Professor Eric Chui, today (May 3) held a press conference on the evaluation findings of the Strive and Rise Programme. Following is the transcript of remarks of the press conference:

Reporter: The first question is, would you share with us what are the reasons for the 6.8 per cent students who had not gained any improvements in the eight factors? Have the students, parents and mentors expressed any complaints or concerns during the first round? What are their common concerns and complaints? How did the Government address them? The final question is, how much donation has the Government raised for the second round, as it is expected to cover more students to 4 000?

Professor Eric Chui: The first question is related to why a certain percentage of people are not able to make any changes, right? There is a wide range of matters involved. Number one, we mentioned the level of participation. Maybe that group of students did not participate very well. We got to know that not all the participants would meet their expectations. Usually, for those people who are not able to participate to a very great extent, they may not be able to gain a lot. I think that is part of the reason. Of course, the other reason is that they may not choose the right programme, and that's the reason why they have raised a number of comments.

     I think that relates to your second question, which is about what are the comments that have been given. So far, we have heard quite a wide range of comments that are related to two aspects. The first one, of course, is about the delivery of the programme. As we've mentioned before, they mentioned that the programme they disliked the most is probably the programme that is very much lecture-based, rather than very interactive and experiential learning. I think they want to take actions, to volunteer, to serve, and then they reflect on that. I think the first comment is about the delivery of the programme.

     The second comment is about the arrangement of the programme. They mentioned that some of the interest classes were offered during the weekdays in the evening, which is not ideal for lower secondary school students, because after school, they have dinner, and then of course they have to rest. That's the reason why they just say that: would it be possible to move it to weekends? Also, some of the comments are about the programmes organised around the exam period, because kids of this group are all concerned about the examinations and their academic results, which is very fair and logical.

      I think these are the two major comments that I got from the respondents.

Chief Secretary for Administration: I don't think there is any complaint as you called from a student. Actually, I would better say a very small number of them, less than 1 per cent, dropped out of the programme, because they were too busy in their studies. This is the main reason.

     Regarding donations, for the first phase of this programme, we received about $140 million donations from the public. And we are now still receiving donations; up to now, I think we have received about $30 million so far. I think the amount reflects clearly that the public has great support for this programme.
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)