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Following is a question by the Hon Tsang Yok-sing and a reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (January 31):
Question:
It has been reported that some members of the public have contracted eye diseases as a result of using cosmetic contact lens. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it knows the respective numbers of such reported cases received by the authorities concerned in each of the past three years; and
(b) how the quality, registration, sale, examination and fitting of cosmetic contact lens are regulated by the Government at present?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) Both the Department of Health (DH) and the Hospital Authority have not received any reports in the past three years of members of the public contracting eye diseases as a result of using cosmetic contact lenses.
(b) The safety of consumer goods which are ordinarily supplied in Hong Kong, including cosmetic contact lenses, is subject to the regulation of the Consumer Goods Safety Ordinance and its subsidiary legislation, Consumer Goods Safety Regulation, both of which are enforced by the Customs and Excise Department (C&ED).
According to the general safety requirement for consumer goods as laid down in section 4 of the Consumer Goods Safety Ordinance, manufacturers, importers and suppliers of consumer goods have a duty to ensure that the consumer goods they supply are reasonably safe having regard to all of the circumstances, including:
* the purpose for which and the manner in which the consumer goods are on sale;
* the use of any mark in relation to the consumer goods and instructions or warnings given for the keeping, use or consumption of the consumer goods; and
* compliance with the reasonable safety standards published by a standards institute relating to consumer goods of that description and the existence of any reasonable means to make the consumer goods safer.
Where consumer goods are subject to regulation under the Consumer Goods Safety Ordinance, any labels affixed thereto which contain any warning or caution with respect to their safe keeping, use, consumption or disposal must be in both the English and the Chinese languages.
As regards risk management, C&ED will from time to time send its staff to collect samples from shops for examination by the Government Laboratory to ensure that consumer goods on sale in Hong Kong comply with the general safety requirement. On receipt of a complaint, C&ED will take follow-up investigation to see whether the product under complaint meets the general safety requirement. So far, C&ED has not received any complaint concerning cosmetic contact lenses.
Besides, cosmetic contact lenses for vision correction are also classified as a medical device. At present, importers or local manufacturers of medical devices may apply for entering their medical devices on a list maintained by the DH under the Medical Device Administrative Control System. Such an arrangement serves to facilitate a recall of products and the taking of follow-up action in case of any incident.
As for contact lenses fitting, under the Supplementary Medical Professions Ordinance and its subsidiary legislation, Optometrists (Registration and Disciplinary Procedure) Regulation, only qualified registered professionals are allowed to prescribe contact lenses or supply such lenses on prescription.
Ends/Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Issued at HKT 12:51
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