WHEREAS, the 46^th annual observance of National Poison Prevention Week will be held March 18 through 24 with the theme: “Children Act Fast – So Do Poisons”; and

        WHEREAS, all Idahoans should be aware of the ever-present dangers posed by potentially poisonous household substances; and

        WHEREAS, our children too often have access to commonly used medications and to such potentially toxic household products as polishes, cleaners, lighter fluids, anti-freeze and paint solvents, generating about 16,000 calls to the Idaho Poison Center each year; and

        WHEREAS, Idaho’s official and volunteer organizations, through information and education programs, have been instrumental in alerting individuals to the need for poison prevention, including the proper use of child protection packaging and locking up poisons; and

        WHEREAS, the latest national figures, which include Idaho, show continued declines in the accidental ingestion among children of medications and household products, as well as continued decline in fatalities associated with accidental poisonings; and

        WHEREAS, although our efforts have substantially reduced the incidence of childhood poisonings, it is clear that as long as one child is accidentally poisoned – and Idaho records indicate more than 50 percent of poisonings occur in children less than six years old – our efforts must continue;

        NOW, THEREFORE, I, C.L. “BUTCH” OTTER, Governor of the State of Idaho, do hereby proclaim March 18 through 24, 2007, to be

P O I S O N   P R E V E N T I O N   W E E K

in Idaho, and I call on all our citizens, especially those working with official and volunteer organizations, to continue their efforts until it is possible to point to the elimination of poisonings as a significant health hazard to Idaho’s precious children.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the Great Seal of the State of Idaho at the Capitol in Boise on this 19^th day of March in the year of our Lord two-thousand and seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred thirty-first and of the Statehood of Idaho the one hundred seventeenth.       

BEN YSURSA
SECRETARY OF STATE