WHEREAS, the 48^th annual observance of National Poison Prevention Week will be held March 15-21 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 potentially toxic household products such as nail polish remover, cleaning products, lighter fluid, windshield washer fluid, anti-freeze, gasoline, pesticides, and paint solvents, generating about 16,000 calls to the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug 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-resistant packaging and locking up poisons; and

        WHEREAS, the latest national poisoning data, which includes Idaho, show a continued decline in the incidence of accidental ingestion of medications and household products among children, as well as continued a 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 that more than one-half of accidental 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 15-21, 2009, to be:

POISON PREVENTION WEEK

in Idaho, and I call on all our citizens, especially those working with official and volunteer organizations, to continue the efforts that have been successful up to this time 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 in Boise, Idaho, on this 11th day of March in the year of our Lord two-thousand and nine and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred thirty-third and of the Statehood of Idaho the one hundred nineteenth.

BEN YSURSA
SECRETARY OF STATE