People queue up to buy salt packed in cartons at a market Thursday. Hundreds of people rushed to supermarkets to purchase salt as they were worried that the salt produced in the future would be polluted by radiation in Japan. Some also believed salt would prevent the infection of radiation. There were also buyers who simply bought salt because they believed it would run out of stock soon as a result of panic buying. Kin Cheung / AP

Secretary for Food and Health York Chow has moved to dismiss rumors, saying that the Japanese radiation leak will not contaminate salt supplies and that there is no need for panic buying of salt.

"The canard is totally incorrect. Hong Kong citizens should have enough common sense and discretion to discern that the radiation will not affect the salt," said Chow.

The secretary spoke at a news conference Thursday as the buying fever for salt spread to Hong Kong from the Chinese mainland, accompanied by the rumors that new supplies of salt would be contaminated by radiation leak.

"The salt supply imported from the Chinese mainland mainly comes from Sichuan, Hubei and Henan province, where the salt mainly comes from the lakes or the rocks instead of the sea," said Richard Cheung, associate professor of the Department of Biology and Chemistry of the City University of Hong Kong.

Cheung added that even if the salt were harvested from the sea, there had not been solid evidence that the Chinese seas were contaminated by the radiation leak.

The radioactive contaminant will have been diluted in the sea water, he said.

Under Secretary for Food and Health Gabriel Leung cleared up another rumor, saying that the iodine, the subject of another rumor, is not capable of reducing the danger of radiation, since salt does not contain as much iodine as many people believe.

In regard to the cause of the panic buying, Secretary Chow said he believed that there was speculation in the market after radiation fears erupted surrounding Japanese formula milk.

Salt prices have shot up, with supplies selling normally at HK$1-2 a catty soaring to HK$20-30 at the marketplace in the city.

However, buyers had already emptied the salt stocks at many supermarkets in North District, which borders Shenzhen, by Wednesday morning.

In Sham Shui Po, people had been holding chips and lining up to purchase salt in department stores and mom-and-pop grocery stores, according to Cable TV's report.

Legislator Wong Sing-chi said he suspected some people have been buying salt in Hong Kong just to resell it on the mainland.

China Daily

(HK Edition 03/18/2011 page1)