Proclamation 3701—National Poison Prevention Week, 1966

It was noted long ago that, "Poison kills only where there is no antidote."

But no antidote will ever take the place of precaution. For when precaution is used, antidotes become unnecessary.

Last year, more than 600,000 American children were the victims of accidental poisoning. Nearly 500 of these children died.

These poisonings took a variety of forms. Some were from medicines and some were from household products. But all had one thing in common: carelessness. To store drugs and poisons within easy reach of children, or to store them along side of food, is as foolish as leaving a loaded pistol lying around the house—and as dangerous.

To alert adults to the dangers of accidental poisoning and to encourage them to take appropriate preventive measures, the Congress, by a joint resolution approved September 26, 1961 (75 Stat. 681), requested the President to issue annually a proclamation designating the third week in March as National Poison Prevention Week:

Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning March 20, 1966, as National Poison Prevention Week.

I direct the appropriate agencies of the Federal Government, and I invite State and local governments and organizations, to participate actively in programs designed to promote better protection against accidental poisonings among young children.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this twenty-seventh day of January in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninetieth.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

By the President:

DEAN RUSK

Secretary of State