Why is there medical waste on our beaches? More importantly, why does the Government not know the answer? We made our third delivery in 12 months of medical waste found on one small beach in Lantau. Over 500 syringes with needles, many medicine bags, and several ampules with drugs, collected by a resident (居民收集到超過500枝針筒、藥樽和藥袋等).
So far, the only thing the Government has promised is to increase beach cleaning. But that does not solve the problem. We want to know where it came from(政府未有徹查來源). There are names of Hong Kong doctors and patients on the medicine bags. Where did they throw it out? At their work? At home? At their doctor’s office? The syringes have residue of blood and drugs. What is it? Answers may lead to solutions. Is it a clinic? Is it a garbage collector? Are the patients working on boats and throwing stuff overboard?
We need forensic investigation (需要鑑證式調查). I know it works. For four years waste was dumped around mid-night in my district. The road was to the transfer station which closes at 11:30pm. The Government would call me to confirm that it was cleaned up quickly. It made me mad, so one morning I went myself. Ripped open the bags until I found an envelope. Went to the address and learned that the waste was collected by a government contractor. I gave the evidence to government and the dumping stopped. Simple.
Cleaning the beach destroys the evidence. Government officials need to get out of their office, and investigate. It is the only way to stop medical waste from floating in our seas and on our beaches.