Hong Kong Veggies Have High Pesticide Levels - Greenpeace
Date: 19-Apr-06
Country: CHINA
The environmental group said the two chains, ParknShop and Wellcome, had obtained more than 80 percent of their vegetable supplies from mainland China, where many banned pesticides were still illegally used, particularly in southern Guangdong province, just north of Hong Kong.
The two chains, which have more than 200 retail outlets, supply 30 percent of Hong Kong's fresh vegetables.
Long-term consumption of pesticides can cause chronic poisoning, damaging reproductive and nervous systems.
Some of the chemicals could be passed to foetuses via the placenta and to infants through breast feeding, Greenpeace said.
"In the most serious cases, there could even be the risk of miscarriage and deformity," Greenpeace spokeswoman Apple Chow told Reuters.
The group tested 55 samples of vegetables sold by the two chains from November 2005 to March 2006 and found that 17 of them, or 30 percent, contained excessive levels of pesticides.
One sample of choi sum, a popular vegetable in Hong Kong, was found to contain levels of the pesticide chlorpyrifos which exceeded the maximum level allowed in the European Union by 240 times. Cypermethrin, another pesticide, exceeded levels allowed in the EU by between 1.2 and 5.8 times.
Banned pesticides such as DDT, lindane and Delta-HCH were found in five of the 55 samples. While DDT is banned for use in crops, it was used by farmers in parts of China, Chow said.
The study comes at a sensitive time when the world is closely watching China's integration with the global village and as it prepares to host the 2008 Olympics.
Parknshop is one of many units owned by Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., a conglomerate controlled by tycoon Li Ka-shing, while Wellcome belongs to Asian retailer Dairy Farm International.
