Presidential Documents

19167

Federal Register

Vol. 63, No. 74

Friday, April 17, 1998

Title 3—

The President

Proclamation 7082 of April 15, 1998

National Recall Round-Up Day, 1998

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

More than 21,000 Americans lose their lives each year in accidents involving

consumer products, and more than 29 million are injured. These accidents

cost our Nation over $200 billion annually, and the cost in terms of human

suffering is immeasurable.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is on the front line of

the Federal Government’s efforts to protect the safety and well-being of

our citizens, especially our children. The CPSC monitors the performance

of more than 15,000 types of consumer products and secures the recall

of those that prove to be defective and potentially hazardous. Last year

alone, the CPSC negotiated 362 recalls involving over 76 million individual

consumer products that presented a significant risk to the public. But getting

dangerous products off store shelves is only the first step. The real challenge

is getting them out of the homes of people who have already purchased

them.

On April 16, the CPSC, in conjunction with State and local governments

and community organizations across the country, will conduct the second

annual Recall Round-Up Day. This initiative is a public safety campaign

to warn Americans that they may still be exposing themselves and their

families to recalled products that could seriously injure or even kill them.

Despite recalls and safety alerts issued by the CPSC, many of these hazardous

products are still in consumers’ homes or can be purchased at secondhand

stores and garage sales.

This year’s Recall Round-Up effort will spotlight the dangers associated

with five types of previously recalled consumer products: playpens, bunk

beds, halogen floor lamps, hand-held hair dryers, and lawn darts. The CPSC

encourages government officials, health, safety, and consumer agencies, community organizations, and the media to alert the American people—particularly parents and child care providers—to the importance of repairing, returning, or destroying any of these products if they have been recalled. I encourage

all Americans to make use of this vital information to protect the safety

and health of their families and to avoid preventable tragedies.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States

of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution

and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 16, 1998, as National

Recall Round-Up Day. I call upon all Americans to observe this day by

working with safety, health, and consumer agencies and other appropriate

community organizations to organize and conduct local round-ups of dangerous and defective consumer products and to warn parents, child care

providers, and the general public about the hazards of using recalled consumer products.
19168 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 74 / Friday, April 17, 1998 / Presidential Documents

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day

of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, and

of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred

[FR Doc. 98–10430

Filed 4–16–98; 8:45 am]

Billing code 3195–01–P

and twenty-second.

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