Academics yesterday urged the Government to speed up legislation to control Chinese medicine and the registration of practitioners after patients who took herbal pills suffered lead poisoning.
Professors at Chinese medicine schools are also pressing for controls over manufacturers after four people who took the pills had to be treated in hospital.
The home-made herbal pills Bao Ning Dan were found to contain up to 200 times the daily allowable intake of lead.
They were prescribed to hundreds of patients over the past seven years for illnesses such as headache, toothache and acne by Wong Kim-ping, who runs a shop at Kingswood Richly Plaza, Tin Shui Wai, Yuen Long. More than 300 people have telephoned a Department of Health hotline since it opened on Monday. Sixty-three have been referred for lead screening.
A total of 151 calls were made during the 24-hour period ending at 3pm yesterday. Twenty-five were referred to the department for assessment and free blood tests.
A 35-year-old woman, a 13-year-old boy and two girls, aged six and 11, were still being treated for lead poisoning in Tuen Mun Hospital last night. They were in a stable condition, the hospital said.
Professor Albert Leung Wing-nang, who is responsible for the full-time teaching programme at Baptist University's School of Chinese Medicine, said: 'I think proper legislation and controls would be for the benefit of the citizens of Hong Kong. That should be done as soon as possible.'
