    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 10 (Monday, March 10, 1997)]
    [Pages 289-290]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Proclamation 6977--National Poison Prevention Week, 1997

    March 5, 1997

    By the President of the United States

    of America

    A Proclamation

        This year, as we observe National Poison Prevention Week, we
    highlight two achievements: the effectiveness of child-resistant
    packaging required by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
    and the lifesaving work of the Nation's poison control centers. These
    public health efforts have reduced childhood poisoning deaths from 450
    deaths in 1961 to 50 deaths in 1993. However, according to the American
    Association of Poison Control Centers, over one million children each
    year are exposed to potentially poisonous medicines and household
    chemicals.
        Virtually all poisonings are preventable, and we must continue to
    inform parents, grandparents, and caregivers how to prevent childhood
    poisonings. The Poison Prevention Week Council, a coalition of 39
    national organizations determined to stop accidental poisonings,
    distributes valuable information used by poison control centers,
    pharmacies, public health departments, and others to conduct poison
    prevention programs in their communities.
        Simple safety measures--such as correctly using child-resistant
    packaging and keeping potentially harmful substances locked away from
    children--can save lives. And if a poisoning occurs, a poison control
    center can offer quick and lifesaving intervention.
        The CPSC requires child-resistant packaging for many medicines and
    household chemicals. A recent CPSC study showed that every year
    approximately 24 children's lives are saved by child-resistant packaging
    for oral prescription medicines. The CPSC recently took action to ensure
    that child-resistant packaging will be easier for adults to use as well.
    This, in turn, will increase the use of child-resistant packaging,
    preventing more poisonings.
        To encourage Americans to learn more about the dangers of accidental
    poisonings and to take more preventive measures, the Congress, by joint
    resolution approved September 26, 1961 (75 Stat. 681), has authorized
    and requested the President to issue a proclamation designating the
    third week of March of each year as ``National Poison Prevention Week.''
        Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United
    States of America, do hereby proclaim March 16 through March 22, 1997,
    as National Poison Prevention Week. I call upon all Americans to observe
    this week by participating in appropriate ceremonies and activities and
    by learning how to prevent accidental poisonings among children.
        In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fifth day of
    March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-seven, and of
    the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and
    twenty-first.
                                                William J. Clinton

    [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., March 7,
    1997]

    Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on March
    10.

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