Proclamation 4343

January 27, 1975

The future of America is in our children. For 13 years, National Poison Prevention Week has been an annual landmark in the ongoing campaign to protect the young children, our country's greatest resource, from the tragedies of childhood poisonings.

The average American home contains a growing variety of labor-saving devices, chemical products, and medicines. We can be proud of the skill and initiative that have made this progress possible. Yet, every thoughtful citizen must be aware that these household products and drugs which ease our daily life, in many instances, are potentially poisonous if used unwisely or stored so carelessly that small children can get to them.

Our challenge as educators, as parents, and as citizens is to strive to reduce the toll of childhood poisoning through adequate programs of public education and information. These programs should develop an awareness of the potential danger associated with many products in the home environment.

Since 1970, the Poison Prevention Packaging Act has contributed substantially to reducing the number of harmful accidental intakes and subsequent injuries and fatalities among children under five. Poisoning reports for aspirin, the product most frequently involved in childhood intake and deaths, have shown a marked decrease since requirements were established under the Act for child-resistant packaging. In order to give further recognition and emphasis to the need to reduce this tragic toll, the Congress has by a joint resolution of September 26, 1961 (75 Stat. 681), requested that the President of the United States annually issue a Proclamation declaring the third week in March as National Poison Prevention Week.

Now, Therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning March 16, 1975, as National Poison Prevention Week.

I invite all agencies and organizations concerned with preventing accidental poisoning among our Nation's children to engage in activities that will speed our Nation's progress in protecting all our children against lasting injury or death from accidental poisoning.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-seventh day of January, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-ninth.



GERALD R. FORD