[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 14 (Monday, April 11, 1994)]
[Pages 738-739]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6664--Cancer Control Month, 1994

April 7, 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

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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.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 12:25 p.m., April 7, 
1994]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on April 
11.