[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 9 (Monday, March 7, 1994)]
[Pages 414-415]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6652--Save Your Vision Week, 1994

March 2, 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

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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.

                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 3:35 p.m., March 2, 
1994]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on March 
4.