Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 96 Part 2.djvu/339

 PUBLIC LAW 97-355—OCT. 19, 1982

96 STAT. 1701

Public Law 97-355 97th Congress Joint Resolution To designate the month of November 1982 as "National Christmas Seal Month".

Whereas chronic diseases of the lung afflict well over eighteen million Americans, cause more than two hundred thousand deaths annually, and cost the Nation more than $45,000,000,000 each year In lost wages, productivity, and in direct costs of medical care; Whereas diseases such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and lung cancer are responsible for three hundred and forty thousand premature deaths a year; Whereas lung cancer is shortly expected to surpass breast cancer as a cause of death in American women, emphysema and other chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases have been the fastest rising cause of death in the United States in the last fourteen years, and over six million Americans, including two million children, suffer from asthma; Whereas the American Lung Association, the Nation's first voluntary health organization providing services to communities with funds raised through private contributions, was founded in 1904 to combat tuberculosis when this lung disease was known in nearly every American family; Whereas tuberculosis has been subdued, though not eradicated, and in this one hundredth anniversary year of the discovery of the tubercle bacillus, the American Lung Association, with other national and international health organizations, is pledged to eliminate tuberculosis from this country in the next decade; and Whereas the American Lung Association now uses Christmas Seal dollars to support pulmonary research, advanced education of doctors and nurses in pulmonary medicine, and to provide services to thousands of Americans in their own communities: Now, therefore, be it

Oct. 19, 1982 [S.J. Res. 262]

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