Proclamation 3573—National Poison Prevention Week, 1964

Whereas untold numbers of innocent children, who are too young and inexperienced to comprehend their peril, are needlessly and thoughtlessly exposed to grave injury or even death as a result of the careless or negligent handling, storage, and disposal by adults of potentially poisonous medicines and household products; and

Whereas, each year, approximately one-half million of these young children consume medicines which are not intended for their use and swallow a variety of household products that are not intended for human consumption; and

Whereas most of those medicines and household products are non-toxic and beneficial to mankind when properly used but are potentially poisonous when misused; and

Whereas a significant number of serious injuries and deaths can be averted if adults will but exercise greater caution and consideration when handling or storing such items and when disposing of them so as to assure that those items are kept out of the reach of young children; and

Whereas, by a joint resolution approved September 26, 1961 (75 Stat. 681), the Congress 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 15, 1964, as National Poison Prevention Week.

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

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 seventh day of February in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-eighth.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

By the President:

Dean Rusk,

Secretary of State.