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A Labour MP has called for all nail bars to be regulated and for a ban on a potentially harmful chemical glue used in some outlets to fix fake nails.
Methyl methacrylate (MMA) is often used because it is cheap, but has a strong odour that can trigger serious skin reactions or permanent nail damage.
Milton Keynes South West MP Phyllis Starkey said the UK should follow the US in banning its use.
The government said there had been no recent public complaints about MMA.
In London local authorities already have the power to close salons using MMA, but nail technicians say they are still seeing clients who have been harmed by MMA.
When the MMA sets it becomes rigid and instead of coming off if it is caught, it can tear off the natural nail.
In some cases the false nail is so difficult to remove it has to be filed off, causing serious damage to the natural nail below.
Dr Starkey, who was alerted by a constituent in Milton Keynes with concerns about the safety of the chemicals being used in nail bars, has asked the Leader of the House of Commons for a debate in Parliament to discuss the public health implications.
She said: "A constituent has drawn my attention to the fact that the proliferation of nail bars with staff who are not properly qualified is leading to, in particular, problems resulting from the use of methyl methacrylate to attach nail extensions.
"The chemical damages the nail bed, and is banned in the US. This issue is of great importance to women in my constituency and throughout the country, and it would be helpful to have a debate about its public health aspects as soon as possible."
Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo said the Health Protection Agency had no record of having received any complaints of ill effects from the use of MMA in nail bars in the last three years.
Posted in: News Updates
FIVE christian groups and two temples, all with annual incomes of over $10 million, have been ordered to open their doors and their books to auditors from the Commissioner of Charities (COC).
The seven are: City Harvest Church, Campus Crusade Asia, Faith Community Baptist Church, New Creation Church, Trinity Christian Centre, Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery and Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple.
The seven religious groups have been picked for the COC?s first "governance review" as they earn the most among the charities under the commissioner?s direct purview.
The review is part of an on-going effort to regularly assess and improve the way charities are run, said the COC's office on Tuesday.
While similar reviews on secular charities are not uncommon, this is the first time the COC is focussing attention on religious groups.
Auditors from Ernst & Young Associates and Deloitte and Touche Financial Advisory Services have been hired by the COC to look into three areas:
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Five of these groups interviewed by The Straits Times on Tuesday welcomed the review. The other two did not return calls. Pastor Derek Dunn, spokesman of City Harvest Church, said: "We are very open to the review as we always strive to do better." He added that three auditors from Deloitte and Touche have been stationed at the church since Monday to examine how things are done there. For example, they are looking at how budgets are approved, how payments are made, among other things. The 23,000-member-strong independent church collected about $25 million in donations in 2005. Another mega independent church, the New Creation Church, received $39.3 million in tithes and offerings in its 2007 financial year. Deacon Matthew Kang of New Creation said the COC?s auditors have asked for documents such as minutes of the church's board meetings and standard operating procedures. He added: "The review is a good learning process for everyone and we are confident of its good outcome." The Trinity Christian Centre, one of the churches in the Assemblies of God denomination, had an income of $14.2 million last year. The COC said this is the first round of reviews of large charities under its direct purview. The 900 or so religious groups make up the bulk of charities under its direct purview. Other groups include environmental organisations. More similar reviews are expected. Charities in Singapore are grouped under six sub-sectors: social service, education, health, the arts and heritage, community and youth, and sports. Religious and other charities that do not fall into these six groupings come under the purview of the COC. In February, the Health Ministry released the results of its checks on 12 of the largest charities in the health sector, such as Renci Hospital and Medicare Centre and Ang Mo Kio - Thye Hua Kwan Hospital. The review showed that these charities needed to fix shortfalls in areas such as their internal controls. Separately, the National Council of Social Service (NCSS) told The Straits Times on Tuesday that it, too, recently completed reviews on three groups providing welfare services under its purview - the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (Minds), Methodist Welfare Services and Jamiyah. The review found no "major concerns" among these three charities as they have systems and processes in place to ensure a "reasonable" level of internal controls and corporate governance. However, the three charities can do better in being more transparent and accountable and in having clearly defined and separate roles for its board members and management staff. The NCSS is now looking at four more goups - the Thye Hua Kwan Moral Society and the charities under it, the Rainbow Centre, Association for Persons with Special Needs and Metta Welfare Association. |
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Singapore water firm Hyflux said it is to set up a business trust comprising 13 China water treatment plants to be floated on the stock market in a deal that a source said would be worth over $100 million.
China is thirsty for more clean water to feed its economic growth. For plant builders such as Hyflux, injecting the completed factories into a trust frees up capital for it to expand elsewhere.
Hyflux, valued at around $1.2 billion, plans to list the trust in Singapore by the year-end.
Hyflux shares rose nearly 5 percent to their highest since September 2005, but, by 0730 GMT, stood 0.6 percent lower at S$3.38.
Hyflux Water Trust will own 13 plants with total daily capacity of 445,000 cubic metres , and will have right of first refusal on all other water assets owned by Hyflux, the Singapore company said in a statement.
Hyflux will retain between a quarter and a third of the trust after the IPO, it added.
The spin-off of the plants into a business trust will allow Hyflux to achieve its asset-light strategy, Chief Executive Olivia Lum told a media briefing.
"Hyflux Water Trust will also be our primary platform for investing in water-related infrastructure assets in high growth markets such as China, India, and the Middle East and North Africa regions," she said.
The company declined to put a value on the transaction, or the trust's targeted yields, citing listing regulations.
"We believe infrastructure trusts and China real estate trusts listed in Singapore … will be the key areas of comparison," said Sam Ong, who takes over as Hyflux CFO after Grace Goh Bee Kheng switched to finance chief at the trust.
Hyflux Executive Vice-President Saud Ibne Siddique will head HWT as CEO of its trust manager.
Hyflux previously assigned first right of refusal for its China plants to CitySpring Infrastructure Trust , which earlier on Thursday said the agreement had been called off by mutual consent.
HWT has the rights to buy 15 more of its wholly-owned China water plants with total daily capacity of 590,000 cubic metres, which Ong said will be injected over the next two years.
He said the trust will also look to acquire more plants outside China and will target those that are worth at least S$30 million each.
JPMorgan is the bookrunner for the new trust.