'Cleaners get no training, safety gear for tear gas'

The police have fired more than 16,000 rounds of tear gas over the past seven months. File photo: RTHK

A labour group says the vast majority of street cleaners in Hong Kong have been given no guidance on how to remove tear gas residue, or any safety training for when they are doing so.



The police have fired more than 16,000 rounds of tear gas across Hong Kong to disperse anti-government protesters over the past seven months.



The Catholic Commission for Labour Affairs said on Thursday that a survey it has carried out suggests only 20 percent of cleaners working for government contractors have been told how best to remove the residue and how to keep themselves safe from the chemicals.



The group also said it has found that only around one in 10 cleaners have been given N95 respirators, and even less have received goggles. Most have only been given surgical masks and rubber gloves by their bosses.



In October, Health Secretary Sophia Chan said the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department had issued guidelines for workers who clean up streets where tear gas has been fired, telling them what kind of safety gear they should use.



Chan also said these guidelines had been made available to outsourced workers.



But Law Pui-shan, the commission's policy research officer, said the government must start enforcing the guidelines.



"I think the contractor does not fulfil its responsibility to enforce guidelines...and I think the government is not doing its best to monitor what the contractors should do," she said.