PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS (Addendum on the Ministry of Health) (Clarification)

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

The Minister for Health (Dr Toh Chin Chye): Mr Speaker, Sir, may I make a point of clarification regarding paragraph 2 (Hansard Vol. 38. No. 1, col. 21) of the Addendum submitted by my Ministry to the Presidential Address. I am thankful to the Member for Whampoa for pointing out to me the inflated morbidity statistics arising out of lung cancer, coronary heart disease and hypertension. There has been a printing error. The sentence should read:

"Last year 22 out of 100,000 people died of lung cancer, a 37% increase over 1973; 72 out of 100,000 died of coronary heart disease, a 41% increase over 1973."

The two zeros were missing in the Addendum which was distributed to Members of the House and the public. I think that is a very dangerous error. The official responsible has been enlightened. In any case, I am thankful that the Member for Whampoa has done his homework.

Dr Augustine H.H. Tan (Whampoa): Mr Speaker, Sir, what a relief to know that we are not all dying at that rate.