National Poison Prevention Week is celebrated the third week of March every year as a way to teach parents and children what toxic substances are lurking in their homes, and it all started in Cape Girardeau.

Homer A. George, a local pharmacist, campaigned long and hard for poison prevention education locally, and in 1958, Poison Prevention Week was proclaimed in Cape Girardeau.

A year later the state adopted it, and in 1961, President John Kennedy signed Public Law 87-319, declaring National Poison Prevention Week.

"He's the reason we have it," said Milton George, Homer's son. Milton George now operates the Broadway Prescription Shop Inc., in Cape Girardeau. The store was opened in 1936 by Homer A. George.