For too long, medical waste washing up on the territory’s beaches has been a danger to the public. That sentence is actually reprinted from the South China Morning Post of October 31, 1993. Sadly, 25 years later, it does not need updating. It remains just as true today.

Outside the walls of hospitals, and medical and veterinary clinics, biosecurity is not a given. Questions remain about the security of waste such as medication, intravenous infusion bags, vials, syringes and needles, between the point of collection and delivery to a high-temperature incineration centre, and about the origin of some of it.

They have been raised again by our recent report, which highlighted the discovery of a full packet of anti-depression prescription medicine amid the usual range of clinical waste washed up on Pak Kok Tsui, a beach on the northern tip of Lamma Island, which is a hang-out for fishermen and children. Lamma resident Robert Lockyer, of environmental group Eco Marine, believes the waste is veterinary, agricultural and horticultural as well as medical.

To ensure the safe and proper disposal of medical waste, seven contractors are licensed to collect it from hospitals and clinics and deliver it within 24 hours to a licensed disposal facility. Lockyer says tides and currents indicated the waste on Pak Kok Tsui came from somewhere between Stanley and Pok Fu Lam. One theory is that it is dumped by contractors employed to deliver it for incineration.