Proclamation 4030—National Poison Prevention Week, 1971

Although the number of children who die from poisoning has been declining, approximately 75,000 accidental poisonings and some 300 deaths among children under the age of five are still reported every year. Young children cannot differentiate between things that are meant to be swallowed and those that are not meant to be swallowed. We adults must make this distinction, and we must be constantly on the alert to avoid a poisoning incident.

The Poison Prevention Packaging Act, which I recently signed into law, will provide for child-resistant containers for toxic or harmful household substances, and will help to end the tragedy of childhood poisonings.

To focus attention on the dangers of accidental poisoning, the Congress in a joint resolution of 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 21, 1971, as National Poison Prevention Week.

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

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

RICHARD NIXON