Proclamation 4190—National Poison Prevention Week, 1973

In recent years, there has been a significant reduction among our Nation's children in the number of deaths due to poisoning.

All Americans can be grateful to the many private and public groups who have worked so hard to prevent accidental poisonings through programs of education, product labeling, dosage limitations, and special packaging. We can be grateful, too, that thanks to the Poison Prevention Packaging Act of 1970, many products previously responsible for accidental poisonings among children are now being sold in special "child-proof" packaging.

But much still remains to be done. The accidental poisonings that continue to occur must still be a matter of grave concern. The natural curiosity of our children, their limitless ingenuity, their inclination to imitate adults, and their desire to taste whatever can be reached sometimes may lead them into dangers that are difficult to control by safety measures of any sort. All of us, therefore, must be constantly alert to the potential hazards of medicines and household products and must exercise every precaution in using and storing such substances.

To encourage such preventive measures, the Congress, in 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, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning March 18, 1973, as National Poison Prevention Week.

I direct all appropriate agencies of the Federal Government to participate actively in programs designed to promote maximum protection of our people against accidental poisonings, particularly among children. Further, I invite all State and local governments and private organizations and individuals to share in this national effort.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 28th day of February, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-seventh.

RICHARD NIXON