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 From Hong Kong's Information Services Department
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September 9, 2009
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Surveillance
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Safety alert on pendant issued
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SE Pendant 0352
Hot item: The Customs & Excise Department urges people not to wear SE Pendant 0352, which has high radioactivity.

The Customs & Excise Department urges people not to wear SE Pendant 0352, which has high radioactivity.

 

Acting on information from the Department of Health that a pendant for sale was potentially harmful to health, Customs officers have seized 2,835 pendants from a chain store.

 

Tests found the radioactivity concentrations of thorium-232 and uranium-238 in the pendant were both above the limit recommended by the International Atomic Energy Agency for commodity products.

 

As the radiation dose from a single pendant can reach up to 60% of the annual skin dose limit recommended, year-long contact with the pendant can result in erythema of the skin. The risk of skin cancer also increases with the duration of contact.

 

The supplier is recalling the pendants.