Govt Rejects Lancet Letter On Tear Gas Guidelines

The government has dismissed a letter posted in The Lancet medical journal that criticised the Hong Kong police's use of tear gas and the lack of monitoring and protective measures in areas where it has been used.

The letter from a group of Chinese University scholars questioned whether tear gas should be used in densely-populated areas and criticised a lack of government efforts to provide health protection and cleaning up guidelines to the public.

But Health Secretary Sophia Chan rejected this criticism and said the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) had issued guidelines for workers who clean up streets where tear gas has been used.

She said the FEHD has made available to outsourced workers these guidelines and provided them with information on what kind of safety gear they should use when doing such work.

Chan didn't mention any advice or assistance for members of the public who had been affected by tear gas.

The minister also denied the government's anti-mask law contradicts public health advice in preventing the spread of germs.

"The most important thing obviously is to take vaccination for prevention. Whether people wearing masks for preventive measures will be arrested, we are not sure," she said.

The secretary said the new law does not, in principle, contradict public health measures.