[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 11 (Monday, March 16, 1998)]
[Pages 421-422]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7073--National Poison Prevention Week, 1998

March 12, 1998

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Protecting the well-being of our children must always be our highest 
priority as a people and as a Nation. Innocent and vulnerable, children 
are eager to explore the world around them, and in our society today, 
where every home is filled with potentially dangerous chemicals, this 
can put our children at grave risk. According to the American 
Association of Poison Control Centers, over one million children are 
exposed each year to potentially deadly medicines and household 
chemicals--a danger we must not, and need not, tolerate.
    Since the first observance of National Poison Prevention Week 36 
years ago, the number of children who have died each year from 
accidental poisonings has dropped dramatically, from 450 in 1962 to 29 
in 1995. This remarkable progress is due in part to the dedicated 
efforts of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Poison 
Prevention Week Council, and our Nation's poison control centers. 
Nevertheless we still have much work to do if we are to prevent even a 
single child from suffering or dying due to poisoning. Because 
poisonings are almost always preventable, there are simple, practical 
steps we can take to protect our children: use child-resistant packaging 
correctly; keep toxic materials locked up and out of the reach of 
children; and, if a poisoning does occur, call a poison control center 
immediately.
    This year, the focus of National Poison Prevention Week is the 
danger posed by pesticides, which are involved in the poisonings of 
thousands of young children each year. While the Environmental 
Protection Agency requires that most pesticides be in child-resistant 
packaging, it is up to parents and caregivers to make sure that these 
materials and other household chemicals and medicines are kept locked up 
and out of the reach of children. By taking a few moments to read labels 
and store pesticides properly, we can avoid a lifetime of regret.
    To encourage the American people to learn more about the dangers of 
accidental poisonings and to take responsible 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 15, through March 21, 1998, 
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 protect our children from poisons.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twelfth day of 
March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, and of 
the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twenty-second.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:18 a.m., March 13, 
1998]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on March 
16.

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