| [ About the Section | Responsibilities
|Key Personnel
|
Quality Assurance | Key Instruments
| Targets and Key Indicators ]
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Product Testing
& Dutiable Commodities Section
About the
Section
|
The Section provides analytical and advisory support to the Customs and Excise Department (C&ED) in the enforcement of legislation concerning revenue collection and consumer protection. Analytical services are provided to support their statutory functions under various regulations and ordinances. Samples of government purchases are also sent to this section by the Government Logistics Department for determining whether the products are in compliance with tender specifications. Testing services on miscellaneous commodities such as flexible gas tubing and parts of endangered species are also provided to various government departments.
A wide variety of dutiable commodities such as spirits, liquors, cigarettes & cigars, manufactured tobacco, diesel fuels and petrol are analysed for duty assessment under the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance. Tar and nicotine yields of about a hundred brands of cigarettes marketed in Hong Kong are routinely monitored for implementation of a cigarette testing programme, which is devised in accordance with Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance to provide enforcement authority and the public with updated information on tar and nicotine yields of cigarettes on sale in Hong Kong. Verification for compliance with Weights and Measures Ordinance is performed on a variety of measuring equipment and pre-packed goods. Toys and children's products are tested against safety standards prescribed in Toys and Children's Products Safety Ordinance while other consumer goods are tested for compliance with Consumer Goods Safety Ordinance.
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Responsibilities
This Section helps to implement the following Ordinances
of Hong Kong:
- Dutiable Commodities Ordinance and subsidiary Regulations
- Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance and subsidiary Regulations
- Weights and Measures Ordinance
- Toys and Children's Products Safety Ordinance and subsidiary
Regulation
- Consumer Goods Safety Ordinance and subsidiary Regulation
- Animals and Plants (Protection of Endangered Species) Ordinance
- Gas Safety Ordinance and subsidiary Regulations
Key Personnel
Senior Chemist: Mr. W F Tong
(Tel. No.: 2180-9152 E-mail: wftong@govtlab.gov.hk)
Quality
Assurance
About 10% of the tests conducted in the Section
are for QC purposes.
Key
Instruments
|
The following instruments are used routinely
by the Section:
- Gas chromatographs with FID, TCD, MSD and NPD detectors
- Liquid chromatographs with tandem mass spectrometer, photo diode array detector and fluorescence detector
- Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES)
- Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS)
- UV/Visible spectrophotometer equipped with auto-sampler
- Automatic inflation system
- Density meter with auto-sampler
- Smoking machine with 16-linear channel ports
- Test rig for pushchair endurance test
- Automated testing equipment for safety testing of bunk beds and children cots
- Tensile and compression tester (50 to 50,000N)
- Walk-in controlled environmental chamber
- Flow-injection mercury analyzer
- Ozone resistance test cabinet
- Rapid resolution liquid chromatographs with photo diode array detector and multiple wavelength detector
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Targets
and Key Indicators
Key Performance Measures Relating to the Statutory
Testing
Targets
| Testing* |
Targets |
2009
(Actual)
|
2010
(Actual)
|
2011
(Plan) |
| Dutiable and other commodities within reporting time averaging ten working days (%) |
95 |
100 |
99 |
95 |
| Toys and children's products within reporting time averaging 15 working days (%) |
95 |
98 |
97 |
95 |
| Consumer goods within reporting time
averaging 35 working days (%) |
95 |
99 |
99 |
95 |
|
| * |
Different samples require different analytical procedures, thus different reporting time applies. The quoted number of working days required represents an average of reporting time for the different types of samples / test requests within the category, while the target (in percentage) is the total compliance rate of the concerned samples / test requests within a particular category against their respective targets. |
Key Indicators
Key Indicators for Statutory Testing
| Tests Performed |
2009
(Actual) |
2010
(Actual) |
2011
(Estimate) |
| Dutiable and other commodities^ |
11,761 |
10,684 |
12,000 |
| Cigarette samples |
13,224 |
13,716 |
13,000 |
| Toys and children's products |
19,423 |
20,527 |
18,500 |
| Consumer goods |
16,961 |
15,651 |
15,000 |
| Other samples^ |
8,620 |
7,004 |
7,700 |
|
| ^ |
Please refer to the indicators of Trade Descriptions Section. |
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