Hong Kong pays attention to threat of Japan’s radioactive wastewater discharge

John Lee, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), said on Sunday that the HKSAR government takes very seriously the immediate and long-term threats to food safety and public health posed by Japan’s discharge of nuclear-contaminated wastewater.
Lee told the media that nuclear contamination is cumulative. In view of the impact of nuclear-contaminated wastewater on marine ecology, the HKSAR government has already prohibited the import of all aquatic products originating from 10 regions in Japan.
For aquatic products from other places of Japan, Hong Kong conducts comprehensive tests every day, and sampling tests will be conducted for non-aquatic products, he added.
Lee stressed that the HKSAR government has placed top priority on food safety and public health, and it must take appropriate measures to control the immediate and long-term risks brought by Japan’s dumping of nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the sea.
The Japanese regions affected by Hong Kong’s import ban are the Tokyo Metropolis and the prefectures of Fukushima, Chiba, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Gunma, Miyagi, Niigata, Nagano and Saitama.
The import ban was announced a day ahead of Aug. 24 when Japan started releasing nuclear-contaminated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean, despite raging opposition both at home and abroad.