Save Your Vision Week, 2001

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Part VI

The President

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Proclamation 7413--Save Your Vision Week, 2001

Proclamation 7414--Greek Independence Day: A National Day of
Celebration of Greek and American Democracy, 2001

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 7413 of March 5, 2001

Save Your Vision Week, 2001

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

As part of our regular health routine, we often
overlook vision. Good vision affects how we work,
communicate, and learn. According to the Department of
Health and Human Services, about 80 million Americans
suffer from potentially blinding eye diseases, 3
million have low vision, and 200,000 more are severely
visually impaired.

Visual impairment can strike at any time. Some eye
diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy, can develop and
damage the eye without warning. Also, visual impairment
can develop more often in certain groups. For example,
some groups of Americans have a higher risk for
glaucoma, including those over the age of 60, African
Americans over the age of 40, and people who have a
family history of the disease.

Visual impairment can also strike the future of this
country: our children. Infants and young children are
not immune to eye disorders. Amblyopia, poor vision in
an eye that did not develop normal sight during early
childhood, causes problems in very early life. Early
vision screening is important for our young people to
ensure that their eyes receive immediate treatment if
problems are found. Also, myopia, or nearsightedness,
affects 15 percent of those entering high school.

Many occupations and forms of recreation can present
dangers to the eye. Eye protection is a necessity when
jobs create the possibility of eye injury. Wearing
protective eyewear when playing sports can cut down on
eye injury by as much as 90 percent, and wearing eye
protection when working in the yard can also reduce the
number of serious eye injuries.

The best way to detect eye diseases and disorders is
through a dilated eye exam. Many eye problems can be
prevented or reversed with early detection and
appropriate intervention.

There are many other ways we can help reduce vision
disorders. We can make healthy lifestyle choices for
ourselves and our families, clinicians can emphasize
prevention in their practices, and scientists can
pursue new treatments and prevention strategies through
research. Using both traditional and innovative
approaches, we can all work to make better vision and
vision protection an important part of our Nation's
public health agenda.

The Congress, by joint resolution approved December 30,
1963 (77 Stat. 629; 36 U.S.C. 138), has authorized and
requested the President to proclaim the first week in
March of each year as ``Save Your Vision Week.''

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, 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 March 4 through March 10,
2001, as ``Save Your Vision Week.'' I urge all
Americans to participate by making eye care and eye
safety an important part of their lives and to ensure
that dilated eye examinations are included in their
regular health maintenance programs. I invite eye care
professionals, the media, and all public and private
organizations dedicated to preserving eyesight to join

in activities that will raise awareness of the measures
we can take to protect and sustain our vision.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
fifth day of March, in the year of our Lord two
thousand one, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and twenty-fifth.

(Presidential Sig.)B