May 20, 2008 — /SEMI/ — SAN JOSE, CA — North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.07 billion in orders in April 2008 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.81, according to the April 2008 Book-to-Bill Report published today by SEMI. A book-to-bill of 0.81 means that $81 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

The three-month average of worldwide bookings in April 2008 was $1.07 billion. The bookings figure is about 8 percent less than the final March 2008 level of $1.17 billion, and almost 32 percent less than the $1.57 billion in orders posted in April 2007.

The three-month average of worldwide billings in April 2008 was $1.32 billion. The billings figure is about 2 percent less than the final March 2008 level of $1.34 billion, and about 17 percent less than the April 2007 billings level of $1.59 billion.

“Relatively flat bookings and billings for North American semiconductor equipment reflect the continued conservative mood of the industry,” says Stanley T. Myers, president and CEO of SEMI. “A number of fab projects have been put on hold or delayed until 2009, and the current 2008 equipment data reflect this trend.”

The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars (click here to view table on SEMI’s site).

The data contained in this release was compiled by David Powell, Inc., an independent financial services firm, without audit, from data submitted directly by the participants. SEMI and David Powell, Inc. assume no responsibility for the accuracy of the underlying data.

The data are contained in a monthly Book-to-Bill Report published by SEMI. The report tracks billings and bookings worldwide of North American-headquartered manufacturers of equipment used to manufacture semiconductor devices, not billings and bookings of the chips themselves.

About SEMI
SEMI is the global industry association serving the manufacturing supply chains for the microelectronic, display and photovoltaic industries. SEMI member companies are the engine of the future, enabling smarter, faster, and more economical products that improve our lives. Since 1970, SEMI has been committed to helping members grow more profitably, create new markets, and meet common industry challenges. SEMI maintains offices in Austin, Beijing, Brussels, Hsinchu, Moscow, San Jose, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, and Washington, D.C.

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May 21, 2008 — ROLLING MEADOWS, IL — The Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology (IEST) is pleased to announce its new officers for the term beginning July 1, 2008.

Charles W. Berndt moves from the position of president-elect to IEST president. A Fellow of IEST, Berndt is involved in many ESTECH and Working Group activities. He is the principal in C.W. BERNDT Associates. Berndt spent six years as group manager of the Araclean Division of ARA/Aratex Services (now known as ARAMARK Cleanroom Services) and holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry-biology from Roosevelt University in Chicago. He serves on the editorial advisory board of CleanRooms magazine.

Other new officers are: Michael Rataj, president-elect; Greg Winn, membership vice president; Roger Diener, education vice president (Contamination Control); and Christine Peterson, technical vice president (Design, Test, and Evaluation/Product Reliability).

Mike Rataj has been involved in the contamination control industry for 12 years since taking over as QA manager for ARAMARK’s Chicago cleanroom plant. Rataj holds an MS in biology from the University of Illinois and an MBA in operations management from the Illinois Institute of Technology Stuart School of Business. He has served as IEST membership vice president and is chair of Working Groups CC003 and CC023.

Greg Winn is general manager for White Knight Engineered Products Controlled Environments Division. His career has encompassed business and product development for industrial machinery, hardware, and software for analytical laboratory equipment, as well as environmental testing as a methods development chemist. Winn is a member of Working Group CC003: Garment System Considerations for Cleanrooms and Other Controlled Environments.

Roger Diener is a senior member of IEST and the recipient of IEST’s James R. Mildon Award in 2003. He has served as president and vice president of the New England Chapter. His practical experience in protocol development and manufacturing operations engineering has allowed him to actively contribute in the development of many IEST Recommended Practices.

Christine Peterson has almost two decades of experience in testing, ranging from helping to write original specifications (or updating existing ones) to running the tests herself, along with teaching the topic worldwide. Peterson previously served as IEST communications vice president and has been an ESTECH seminar chair (or co-chair) and IEST Working Group member. She also has served as chair for IEC/TC 104 MT 16 and chair for ISO/TC 108, SC 6.

Remaining on the executive board are R.Vijayakumar, fiscal vice president; David Ball, education vice president (Design, Test, and Evaluation/Product Reliability); Gregg Mosley, communications vice president; Gary Knoth, technical vice president (Contamination Control); and Fred Fey, immediate past president.

About IEST
Founded in 1953, IEST is an international not-for-profit technical society of engineers, scientists, and educators that serves its members and the industries they represent (simulating, testing, controlling, and teaching the environments of earth and space) through education and the development of recommended practices and standards. IEST is an ANSI-accredited standards-developing organization; secretariat of ISO/TC 209 Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments; administrator of the ANSI-accredited US TAG to ISO/TC 209; and a founding member of the ANSI-accredited US TAG to ISO/TC 229 Nanotechnologies.

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May 27, 2008 — ATLANTA, GA — Proper air quality is essential for general health and well-being in indoor spaces. Recognizing this, most people will take steps to address air quality in their homes and workplaces, but what about when on board an airplane when passengers have no control in a very high-density environment?

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) addresses air cabin air quality in its new Standard 161-2007, Air Quality Within Commercial Aircraft. The standard, which covers issues such as temperature, cabin pressure, air contaminants and ventilation rates, can be voluntarily adopted by individual airlines or the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), or advocated for by airline passenger and employee groups.

“Compliance with this standard will go a long ways toward ensuring good air quality for passengers and crews,” says Byron Jones, chair of the committee that wrote the standard. “Aircraft passengers and crew make up a wide cross-section of the general population, ranging from the very young to the very old, from the healthy to infirm. And unlike many other indoor environments, occupants do not have the ability to remove themselves from the environment, which is at a lower pressure and relative humidity than that found in many other environments. Standard 161 will help create a healthier, more enjoyable ride for the great variety of passengers on board.”

The standard also addresses chemical, physical, and biological contaminants that could affect air quality as well. Methods of testing are provided for ensuring compliance with the standard’s requirements.

Standard 161 applies to commercial passenger air-carrier aircraft carrying 20 or more passengers. It is intended to apply to all phases of flight operations and to ground operations when the aircraft is occupied by passengers or crew members.

About ASHRAE
ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is an international organization of 50,000 persons. ASHRAE fulfills its mission of advancing heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world through research, standards writing, publishing, and continuing education.

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May 15, 2008 — /FDA News/ — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced the shut down of cream cheese and seafood operations at Lifeway Foods, Inc. and its subsidiary, LFI Enterprises, Inc., both Illinois companies, until they are found compliant with food-safety laws. A consent decree of permanent injunction, signed by both corporations and two of their top executives, Julie and Edward Smolyansky (the defendants), halts cream cheese and seafood processing in facilities in Skokie,
IL, and Philadelphia, PA.

The FDA’s enforcement action follows the defendants’ extensive history of violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act dating back to at least 2004. The complaint, filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, alleges that the
defendants:

• Labeled and distributed cream cheese products with inadequate labels, including labels that did not disclose major food allergens, trans fat levels, and complete ingredient lists.
• Processed and distributed products with seafood, including whitefish salad, ground nova salmon, and lox cream cheese and lox cream cheese spreads, without adequate Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plans to ensure the safe and sanitary processing of seafood containing products.
• Failed to document that they monitored sanitation conditions to keep food contact surfaces clean, to prevent cross-contamination from unsanitary objects, and to maintain hand washing, hand sanitizing, and toilet facilities.

“We simply can’t allow companies to put the public’s health at risk by not having adequate procedures and plans to produce safe food and proper labeling,” says Margaret O’K. Glavin, associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. “We will work to take action against companies and their executives that violate the law.”

Under the consent decree, operations may resume only after the FDA determines that the defendants have come into full compliance will all food-safety requirements. The consent decree requires the defendants to hire a seafood-processing expert to prepare a HACCP plan and to submit the plan to the FDA.

The HACCP violations pose a public health hazard because, without adequate controls, the defendants’ seafood products could foster dangerous bacteria, such as Vibrio species, Salmonella, Escherichia coli, Campylobacter jejuni, Staphylococcus aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes. Food products with these kinds of pathogens can cause serious illnesses for people who eat them. Further, foods sold with labels that do not disclose major food allergens and complete ingredient lists can cause severe or life-threatening allergic reactions in people who are allergic to the undisclosed allergens.

The decree does not include other products manufactured by Lifeway including kefir, Farmer’s cheese, and spreadable cheese products. The decree was signed by Judge Wayne R. Andersen on May 15, 2008, in the U.S.
District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

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May 16, 2008 — /FDA News/ — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced that Scientific Laboratories Inc., and its president, Rajeshwari Patel, and chief executive officer, Amit Roy, have signed a Consent Decree of Permanent Injunction and are barred from manufacturing and distributing drug products until they bring their manufacturing operations into compliance with law and obtain approval for their products.

Scientific Laboratories is a contract manufacturer and distributor of various prescription cough and cold products. The government’s complaint, filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, alleged violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act). The company failed to seek required FDA approval for some of its products and failed to comply with current Good Manufacturing Practice requirements (CGMP).

“The FDA will not allow a company to put the public’s health at risk,” says Janet Woodcock, M.D., director of FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “These unapproved new drugs have not undergone FDA review for safety and efficacy and may pose potential health risks.”

The unapproved new drugs manufactured and marketed by Scientific Laboratories as prescription cough and cold products include: B-Vex Suspension, Ben-Tann Suspension, D-Tann Suspension, D-Tann AT Suspension, D-Tann CT Suspension, D-Tann DM Suspension, D-Tann HC Suspension, Dur-Tann DM Suspension, Duratan DM Suspension, L-All 12 Suspension, Nazarin Liquid, and Nazarin HC Liquid. Because these drugs have not undergone FDA review nor received approval, their safety and effectiveness have not been established. Additionally, the FDA has not reviewed the adequacy and accuracy of the directions and warnings in their labeling.

The FDA had warned Scientific Laboratories against violating the FD&C Act and about the risk of enforcement action if it failed to take corrective measures. “The FDA will take action against companies and their executives who violate the law and endanger public health,” says Margaret O’K. Glavin, associate commissioner for Regulatory Affairs. “The FDA will carefully monitor the provisions of this injunction as well as investigate and take action against other marketers of unapproved drugs.”

The consent decree bars the defendants from manufacturing and distributing any drug until they obtain required FDA approval and fully comply with CGMP requirements. The defendants must destroy their illegal drugs. The consent decree also allows the FDA to order the defendants to shut down in the event of future violations. It also subjects the defendants to liquidated damages in the amount of $5,000 per day if they fail to comply with any of the provisions of the decree, and an additional sum of $5,000 for each violation, up to $1 million per year.

If patients have these products in their homes, they should discuss with their health care provider whether to discontinue use of the products and to find alternative therapy. Pharmacies should discontinue dispensing these products. In June 2006, the FDA issued a guidance document titled, “Marketed Unapproved Drugs

May 16, 2008 — /FDA News/ — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today directed Hope Food Supply Inc., a Pasadena, TX, food processing company, to shut down and immediately recall all products manufactured from its Texas facility since 2007.

The company, under a different name, had manufactured dried smoked catfish steaks and other smoked seafood products and had been subject to a consent decree of permanent injunction requiring it to develop and implement an adequate Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan for its fish and fishery products. The firm had not developed this plan. The company cannot restart manufacturing until they have implemented an FDA-approved HACCP plan.

“We simply will not allow a company to put the public’s health at risk by not implementing adequate procedures and plans to produce safe food,” says Margaret O’K. Glavin, associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. “The FDA will take action against companies and against their executives who violate the law and endanger public health.”

FDA’s HACCP regulations require that all seafood processors develop and implement adequate HACCP plans that identify all food safety hazards that are likely to occur for each kind of seafood product that they process, and set forth preventative measures to control those hazards.

The HACCP violations documented by the FDA pose a public health hazard because, without adequate controls, Hope Food Supply’s seafood products could harbor pathogenic bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes. Food products with these kinds of pathogens can cause serious illnesses in people who eat them.

The company’s products have been distributed nationwide. FDA is advising consumers who bought smoked seafood products to check with the place of purchase to determine if the products came from Hope Foods. If so, consumers should throw the products out by placing them in a trash receptacle.

Consumers who have been eating Hope Seafood Supply’s dried smoked catfish or other smoked seafood products and have experienced adverse reactions should consult their health care professional. Consumers and health care professionals can also report adverse events to the FDA consumer complaint coordinator in their geographic area. Contact numbers may be found online at www.fda.gov/opacom/backgrounders/complain.html.

For more information, consumers can call the FDA’s toll-free Food Safety Hotline at 1-888-SAFEFOOD.

Visit www.fda.gov