[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 69 (Monday, April 11, 1994)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 16961-16962]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-8725]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: April 11, 1994]




                        Presidential Documents 


Federal Register
Vol. 59, No. 69
Monday, April 11, 1994

____________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President
                Proclamation 6664 of April 7, 1994

 

Cancer Control Month, 1994

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                April 1994 has been designated Cancer Control Month. 
                For the past 56 years, the President of the United 
                States, at the request of the Congress, has designated 
                one month each year to focus public attention on the 
                progress that we, as a Nation, have made with regard to 
                this devastating disease. This Proclamation continues 
                to be a national statement of hope that one day we will 
                understand, control, and eliminate cancer.

                It would be hard to exaggerate the toll cancer exacts. 
                Each year more than 1 million Americans are diagnosed 
                with cancer, and nearly one-half that many die of the 
                disease. We face an awesome challenge in controlling 
                cancer--one that can be met only through research and 
                the implementation of research results.

                Breast cancer is the most common cancer among American 
                women and epitomizes the challenge of our mission to 
                protect and improve women's health. Breast cancer is 
                widely prevalent and takes a tragically large toll on 
                women's lives. Yet there are realistic prospects for 
                its eventual prevention and cure. The strategies used 
                to foster the translation of scientific knowledge into 
                clinical innovations toward eradicating breast cancer 
                also serve as prototypes for the treatment of other 
                malignancies.

                Likewise, prostate cancer is the most frequently 
                diagnosed cancer among men and the second leading cause 
                of male cancer deaths. Researchers continue to direct 
                their efforts toward understanding the biology of this 
                disease in order to design more effective therapies, 
                search for more effective screening methods, and 
                ultimately, prevent its occurrence.

                The National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer 
                Society, and other organizations are intensifying the 
                effort in cancer prevention research. Programs to 
                identify environmental and occupational causes of 
                malignancy continue to be at the forefront of this 
                research. Current studies address the links between 
                cancer risks and exposure to pesticides, proximity to 
                sources of environmental toxins and occupational 
                carcinogens, air pollution, drinking water 
                contaminants, and electromagnetic radiation.

                We now know that every one of us can join the fight 
                against cancer. The role played by the public is just 
                as important as the role played by the most highly 
                trained scientists. Each of us can adopt a lifestyle 
                that lowers our chances of getting cancer.

                In cancer control, nothing is more important than 
                understanding and striving to reduce the effects of 
                smoking, implicated in at least one-third of all cancer 
                deaths each year. Some 50 million Americans smoke--most 
                are adults, but a significant number are teenagers. 
                Smokers bear the brunt of our annual national tragedy 
                of more than 200,000 cases of lung and mouth cancers 
                and more than 100,000 cases of pancreatic, kidney, and 
                bladder cancers. No new drug--no new prevention or 
                screening technique--would strike as powerful a blow in 
                our fight against cancer as the single decision by 
                millions of smokers to quit their habit once and for 
                all.

                Thanks to our progress in cancer research, more than 
                one-half of the people diagnosed with cancer survive 
                their disease 5 years or more. Such survival rates were 
                not even a whispered hope for cancer patients just one 
                generation ago. The years ahead hold promise of 
                important advances in the prevention and treatment of 
                cancer. Together we will continue to work so that fewer 
                people will have to suffer from cancer and its 
                aftermath, so that fewer lives will be jeopardized, and 
                so that fewer people will lose their loved ones to this 
                disease.

                In 1938, the Congress passed a joint resolution (52 
                Stat. 148; 36 U.S.C. 150) requesting the President to 
                issue an annual proclamation declaring April as 
                ``Cancer Control Month.''

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, do hereby proclaim April 1994 
                as Cancer Control Month. I invite the Governors of the 
                50 States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the 
                Mayor of the District of Columbia, and the appropriate 
                officials of all other areas under the American flag, 
                to issue similar proclamations. I also ask health care 
                professionals, private industry, advocacy groups, 
                community groups, insurance companies, and all other 
                interested organizations and individual citizens to 
                unite during this month to publicly reaffirm our 
                Nation's continuing commitment to controlling cancer.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                seventh day of April, 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. 94-8725
Filed 4-7-94; 12:25 pm]
Billing code 3195-01-P