Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 82.djvu/1650

 1608

PROCLAMATION 3826-FEB. 7, 1968

[82 STAT.

NOW, T P I E E E F O E E, I, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, President of the United States of America and Honorary Chairman of the American National Red Cross, do hereby designate March 1968 as Red Cross Month. I strong!}' urge all Americans to heed the special SOS (Support Our Servicemen) campaign by volunteering their time and to contribute what they can. I N W I T N E S S WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifth day of February in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-second.

Proclamation 3826 NATIONAL POISON PREVENTION WEEK, 1968 February 7, 1968

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

81 Stat. 466. 15 USC 1262 note.

Each year, half a million Americans—most of them children— accidentally swallow substances that could kill or injure them. Two familiar substances—medicine and household products—are among the most dangerous causes of accidental poisoning among children. Both are valuable assets in our homes—when used as directed. Yet both are a potential danger—a danger no more remote than the unknowing grasp of a small child. The federal government, together with State and local agencies, private industry, and professional and civic organizations, has tried to alert Americans to the dangers that lie on the shelves of a careless home. Since 1962, when we first called national attention to this threat, deaths by accidental poisoning among children under five years of age has declined 20 percent. I recently signed into law a bill to establish a National Commission on Product Safety whose job it will be to identif}^ dangerous household products. We must do more. We need to be much more alert to the dangers of accidental poisoning. And we need to learn more about how to treat it. To stimulate public interest in this problem, I am designating the third week in March as National Poison Prevention Week, as requested by Congress. NOW, THEREFORE, I, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, President of the United States of America, do hereby jiroclaim the week beginning March 17, 1968, as National JPoison I*revention Week. I direct the appropriate agencies of the Federal Government, and I invite State and local governments and organizations, to participate actively in programs clesigned to promote better protection against accidential poisonings, particularly among children..

�