Kennie Chang

Mr Chang participated in MSc EPHM’s Internship Programme to work at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva in 2017. He is currently working in an environmental related company - Hansk New Materials Holdings Limited (漢斯克新材料集團有限公司). Kennie shared his fruitful opportunity to work at the WHO and introduced his current job nature and shared his insight on working in the environmental and public health fields.

My major task during the internship in WHO is working with the external experts for the “Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues”. A series of teleconferences has been coordinated, by which controversial scientific data, equivocal experimental results were discussed and action items were determined. All details are documented and saved by me in the WHO database. I also regularly update the monograph drafts in the database before the official meeting among the experts, WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in September. The target is to determine the Acceptable Daily Intake of the pesticide residues on food.

Moreover, I am the administrator of the WHO food safety database to support the requests of data from different institutes in the world, including the Centre for Food Safety in Hong Kong. For example, data of the average consumption quantity of fish and mercury concentration are available for evaluating the impact on consumers.

Since we are calling for scientific data from different technical institutes in the world to prepare the Codex meeting in 2018, I am also involve in editing the Codex Alimentarius documents concerning lead, methylmercury and cadmium in certain food commodities in this regard.

Occasionally, I will translate some food safety news from China for helping my colleagues to understand the China situations better. Last but not the least, working together with talented people from different professional backgrounds in WHO has certainly enriched my knowledge, to which I value as a great and unforgettable experience.