[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 43 (Friday, March 4, 1994)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 10265-10266]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-5163]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: March 4, 1994]




                        Presidential Documents 


Federal Register
Vol. 59, No. 43
Friday, March 4, 1994

____________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President
                Proclamation 6652 of March 2, 1994

 

Save Your Vision Week, 1994

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                Vision is a gift to be treasured. We often take our 
                sight for granted and must be reminded that our eyes 
                require adequate care and attention. At a time when new 
                technologies are revolutionizing medicine, eye care 
                continues to make dramatic progress. Many diseases or 
                accidents that would have caused permanent blindness 
                just a few decades ago can now be treated, with 
                excellent prospects for full recovery. Eye care 
                professionals learn more about proper eye care every 
                year, discovering new ways to prevent disease and to 
                minimize potential damage to our precious eyesight.

                Despite our ever-increasing medical knowledge, however, 
                thousands of Americans still suffer preventable vision 
                loss each year. Proper eye care can significantly 
                reduce the incidence of such needless tragedies, and I 
                encourage all Americans to learn ways to minimize the 
                risks of disease and injury to their eyes.

                Having periodic eye examinations is an excellent way to 
                invest in one's long-term health. Preventive eye care 
                is always more efficient, more effective, and less 
                expensive than dealing with an existing disease. A 
                comprehensive eye examination allows an eye care 
                professional the ability to identify a disease in its 
                earliest stages and prescribe the treatment with the 
                best chances for success.

                Glaucoma, one of the leading causes of blindness in the 
                United States, if diagnosed early, can be treated quite 
                successfully. Though there are often no early warning 
                symptoms of the disease, an eye care professional can 
                detect the affliction during a regular examination and 
                prescribe eye drops or other simple treatments to 
                control the disease and save the patient's sight. I 
                urge all people at high risk for glaucoma--African 
                Americans over the age of 40 and everyone over the age 
                of 60--to receive an eye examination through dilated 
                pupils at least every two years.

                People with diabetes are also at particularly high risk 
                for preventable eye disorders. Such eye disease as 
                diabetic retinopathy, which still blinds many people 
                with diabetes in our Nation, can be stopped if it is 
                diagnosed in time. By receiving an eye examination at 
                least once a year, diabetics can do much to protect 
                their vision.

                Children, of course, should receive periodic eye 
                examinations, starting when they are very young. 
                Regular eye care at a tender age can identify otherwise 
                hidden disorders, thus sparing the child a lifetime of 
                visual impairment.

                I encourage all Americans to take precautions to 
                safeguard their vision throughout their lives. We must 
                teach our children proper eye safety by example--
                wearing masks or goggles when we play in contact sports 
                and using safety glasses when working with volatile 
                chemicals or dangerous machinery.

                To encourage everyone to make a concerted effort to 
                protect the cherished gift of sight, the Congress, by a 
                joint resolution approved December 30, 1963 (77 Stat. 
                629; 36 U.S.C. 169a), has authorized and requested the 
                President to issue a proclamation designating the first 
                week in March of each year as ``Save Your Vision 
                Week.''

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week 
                beginning March 6, 1994, as Save Your Vision Week. I 
                urge all Americans to participate in this observance by 
                making eye care and eye safety a priority in their 
                lives. I invite eye care professionals, members of the 
                media, and all public and private organizations 
                committed to the important goal of sight protection to 
                join in activities that will make Americans more aware 
                of the steps they can take to protect their vision.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                second day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen 
                hundred and ninety-four, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and 
                eighteenth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)>

[FR Doc. 94-5163
Filed 3-2-94; 3:35 pm]
Billing code 3195-01-P