Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ1: Sensor-activated hand-washing facilities
Following is a question by the Hon Albert Chan and an oral reply by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today
(June 17):
Question:
I have learnt that most of the toilets in the venues under Food and
Environmental Hygiene Department, Leisure and Cultural Services Department,
Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and Housing Department as
well as most of those in various Government Offices do not have facilities such
as automatic sensor water taps, automatic sensor or manually-operated soap
dispensers and electric hand dryers. Quite a number of members of the public
have relayed to me that such toilets have a rather heavy flow of people but do
not have the aforesaid sanitary facilities, and they are worried that diseases
spread easily through these toilets. In this connection, will the Government
inform this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers of toilets without the aforesaid sanitary
facilities, as well as the respective percentages of such numbers in the total
number of the toilets in the aforesaid venues, broken down by government
department and the type of sanitary facility;
(b) of the reasons for not installing such sanitary facilities in these toilets;
and
(c) whether it will expeditiously install such sanitary facilities in these
toilets, so as to reduce the chance of diseases spreading; if it will, of the
timetable; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
Sensor-activated hand-washing facilities are convenient to use, and can
effectively prevent re-contamination of washed hands as there is no need for
direct contact with hand-washing facilities. However, in considering whether
sensor-activated hand-washing facilities should be installed, we have to take
into account a variety of factors, including physical constraints, technical
feasibility, system reliability, and installation and maintenance costs. In
fact, according to the latest Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care issued
by the World Health Organisation in May this year, manually-operated taps are
considered the optimal standard within health care settings to ensure a
continuous water supply. Meanwhile, when sensor-activated hand-washing
facilities break down, users will not be able to complete the hand-washing
procedure, therefore these facilities may pose more serious hidden health risks.
The reply to each part of the question is set out below: -
(a) The vast majority of the public toilets under the management of the Food and
Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), Leisure and Cultural Services
Department (LCSD), Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) and
Housing Authority (HA) and of the visitors' toilets in Government joint-user
office buildings under the management of the Government Property Agency (GPA)
are provided with basic and up-to-standard hand-washing facilities, including
sensor-activated or manually-operated taps, liquid soap or hand sanitisers, and
hand dryers or paper towels. The number of public toilets without
sensor-activated taps, sensor-activated or manually-operated soap dispensers or
electric hand dryers, and their percentages in the total number of public
toilets are set out in the table attached to the reply.
(b) & (c) The constraints of sensor-activated hand-washing facilities have been
mentioned above. In fact, the spread of disease can also be prevented if the
manually-operated hand-washing facilities are used properly, such as wrapping
the faucet with paper towel or splashing water to clean it before turning the
tap off. In addition, the provision of elbow- or foot-activated taps in some
hospitals also helps prevent direct contact with hand-washing facilities by
hands.
At present, toilets under the management of FEHD which are not equipped with
sensor-activated taps, manually-operated soap dispensers or electric hand dryers
are mainly flushing toilets converted from aqua privies in earlier periods or
aqua privies yet to be converted into flushing toilets. Since 2000-01, these
hand-washing facilities have already been provided in newly built, reprovisioned
or refurbished toilets (including those in the public markets and other venues
of FEHD) as well as flushing toilets converted from aqua privies. To step up
disease prevention efforts, FEHD has already installed hand sanitisers at all of
its public toilets and aqua privies.
Public toilets under the management of the LCSD, AFCD and HA as well as
visitors' toilets in Government joint-user office buildings under the management
of GPA have been provided with the basic and up-to-standard hand-washing
facilities, including sensor-activated or manually-operated taps, liquid soap
and electric hand dryers or paper towel. To better protect public health, the
departments concerned will clean and disinfect the public toilet facilities
regularly.
While the provision of appropriate hardware facilities is important, adopting
good hygiene practices and raising personal hygiene awareness are also
indispensable in the fight against the spread of disease. In particular, the
proper hand-washing procedure is the key to maintaining personal hygiene. In
this respect, the Department of Health has been promoting the proper
hand-washing procedure to the public through announcements of public interest on
television and radio, posters, pamphlets, booklets and webpage, etc. In view of
the global and local situation of human swine influenza, the Administration sent
a booklet entitled "Keep Clean, Be Healthy" to all households in Hong Kong in
May this year, reminding members of the public of the guidelines on personal and
home hygiene, including the proper hand-washing procedure.
We consider that all public toilets should be equipped with basic and
up-to-standard hand-washing facilities, including sensor-activated or
manually-operated taps, liquid soap or hand sanitisers, and hand dryers or paper
towels. As such, we plan to gradually provide these hand-washing facilities in
those public toilets without such facilities during the refurbishment and
maintenance works. For instance, in building new toilets, reprovisioning or
refurbishing the existing toilets and converting aqua privies into flushing
toilets, FEHD will install infra-red sensor-activated taps, soap dispensers and
electric hand dryers whenever the circumstances permit. Toilets in the public
markets and other venues managed by FEHD will also be provided with such
facilities under the regular maintenance and repair programmes. Currently, about
20 public toilets are refurbished by FEHD each year. Besides, FEHD has been
implementing a programme to convert aqua privies into flushing toilets since
2005, with the aim to convert all aqua privies into flushing toilets by 2012-13.
Ends/Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Issued at HKT 15:01
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Annex to LCQ1