[Title 3 CFR 7073]
[Code of Federal Regulations (annual edition) - January 1, 1999 Edition]
[Title 3 - Presidential Documents]
[Proclamation 7073 - Proclamation 7073 of March 12, 1998]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]


3Presidential Documents11999-01-011999-01-01false7073Proclamation 7073Presidential Documents
Proclamation 7073 of March 12, 1998

National Poison Prevention Week, 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,

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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