February 19, 2008 — /PRNewswire/ — MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Pace Analytical Services, Inc., (Pace Analytical) is pleased to announce that, effective February 19, 2008, it has purchased the assets of Laucks Testing Laboratory, Inc. in Seattle, WA. Laucks is a full-service analytical laboratory with vast experience in all facets of DOD, CERCLA, RCRA, and CWA programs. For more than 100 years, Laucks has provided analytical chemistry and microbiological services for environmental, industrial manufacturing, clinical, pharmaceutical, toxicological, and mineralogical customers and offers one of the most extensive listings of approved testing parameters certified by the Washington Department of Ecology.

Laucks Testing Laboratories, Inc., was founded in 1908. The laboratory started by providing assay services for the Alaska gold rush. For the past 35 years, Laucks has focused mainly on environmental testing serving both the local market and the federal market. Laucks’ senior management team has extensive experience with the Army, Navy, and Air Force environmental programs.

Pace is also pleased to announce that Kent Patton will oversee this new west coast location for Pace as senior general manager. Kent has more than 20 years experience in the industry, most recently as a vice president at ESC, and North Creek Analytical prior to that.

Steve Vanderboom, CEO of Pace Analytical, comments, “We are excited to add a Pace location in Seattle. We have retained an experienced staff from Laucks and will be focused on building a strong Pace facility to serve our west coast customers.”

This new west coast location for the Pace Analytical network represents both geographic expansion as well as enhanced specialty services offered by adding explosives testing capabilities. This expansion will improve service coverage for Pace’s current clients and will provide Laucks’ clients with the most complete depth of expertise, capacity, products, services, locations, and longevity in the environmental testing industry. The acquisition of Laucks enables Pace to provide more efficient service for its west coast clients and more laboratory capacity for the federal market.

Pace Analytical Services, Inc. is the second largest environmental testing laboratory company in the United States, operating a nationwide network of eleven laboratories and nine service centers with a list of certifications and accreditations that covers the nation.

Visit www.pacelabs.com

February 19, 2008 — /ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL/ — A newly revised Recommended Practice from the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology (IEST) describes a method for characterizing organic compounds outgassed from materials or components exposed to air or gases in cleanrooms and other controlled environments.

IEST-RP-CC031.2: Method for characterizing outgassed organic compounds from cleanroom materials and components is relevant to industries that may experience adverse production yields as a result of gaseous organic contamination, also known as volatile organic compounds and semivolatile organic compounds. In the semiconductor industry, the deposition of outgassed compounds on hardware, products, and wafer surfaces is recognized as a source of processing problems and hardware failures. In aerospace, the presence of molecular contamination can significantly degrade spacecraft performance goals and hasten end-of-life projections.

This RP provides both a semiquantitative determination and a qualitative identification of a large range of compounds. The method is designed to screen primarily cleanroom materials, but can also be applied to materials used in other controlled environments for identification of outgassed compounds detectable by dynamic headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

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; administrator of the ANSI-accredited US TAG to ISO/TC 142 cleaning equipment for air and other gases; and a founding member of the ANSI-accredited US TAG to ISO/TC 229 nanotechnologies.

Visit www.iest.org

February 19, 2008 — /PRNewswire/ MOORESVILLE, NC — Anpath Group, Inc. (BULLETIN BOARD: ANPG) reported today that its wholly owned subsidiary, EnviroSystems, Inc. (ESI), announced completion of a development and marketing agreement with Foster-Miller, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of QinetiQ North America and part of its Technology Solutions Group, for the purpose of promoting the joint sales of ESI’s disinfectant products and Foster-Miller’s electrostatic charged aerosol decontamination systems (ECADS). The Memorandum of Understanding between the two companies encourages development of new ESI products for use with the ECADS and the sale of ESI’s EnviroTru^R disinfectant/cleaner and ECADS as a system approach solution to widespread decontamination and remediation issues and problems.

EnviroTru is a multi-purpose disinfectant and deodorizing cleaner effective against numerous organisms, and also meets EPA requirements for Toxicity Category IV (no harmful dermal, ocular, inhalation, or ingestion effects). ESI worked with Foster-Miller to validate the use of its disinfectant with ECADS.

The ECAD decontamination and remediation system disperses fine electrically charged droplets of decontaminant into the air. Because of the static charge imparted to aerosol particles, ECADS delivers a much higher amount of disinfectant on targeted surfaces than conventional air assisted spray systems; approximately 60 percent of the total disinfectant dispensed on the surface by the ECADS sprayer, versus less than 15 percent for conventional sprayers.

Last November, EnviroSystems announced the selection of EnviroTru as the disinfectant of choice by the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. The Company stated that in addition to daily application of EnviroTru on high hand contact areas, Metro has contingency plans in the event of a pandemic flu or other infectious disease outbreak. In such an event, Metro is prepared to use EnviroTru with the Foster-Miller ECADS to completely spray rail cars, buses and other vehicles daily.

“Based in part on our success with the Washington Metro system, we are anxious to rapidly expand this decontamination system approach,” states J. Lloyd Breedlove, ESI president and CEO. “The combination of an extremely efficient, easy-to-administer spray system and a highly efficacious disinfectant with a favorable materials compatibility and environmental profile is a unique and practical solution to many infection prevention problems. We feel this solution has wide application, particularly the decontamination of large, high-traffic areas, and we intend to aggressively pursue that market opportunity,” Mr. Breedlove explains.

According to Foster-Miller, Inc. representative Rick Lusignea, “We are pleased that we have joined forces with ESI to offer better solutions in the fight against the spread of infectious diseases. With a growing and increasingly mobile society, the challenge of preventing the spread of infectious microorganisms has increased exponentially in recent years. The combination of ESI’s disinfectant and our decontamination system offers a very effective and pragmatic approach to helping prevent the spread of infectious microorganisms while minimizing the harmful effects to people, surfaces, and the environment.”

About Anpath Group, Inc.

Anpath Group, Inc., through its wholly-owned subsidiary EnviroSystems, Inc., produces cleaning and disinfecting products that it believes will help prevent the spread of infectious microorganisms while minimizing the harmful effects to people, equipment, or the environment.

EnviroSystems, Inc. is focused on safe infection prevention technologies that the company believes will position the company in the forefront of the industry at a time when there is rapidly growing awareness of the critical need to prevent biological risks, both natural and man-made.

Visit www.anpathgroup.com
www.envirosi.com

February 19, 2008 — /PRNewswire/ — SAN JOSE, CA — GES, Inc. today announces it has been awarded a personnel service contract by Kokusai Electric Semiconductor Service, Inc., one of the subsidiaries of semiconductor equipment division of Hitachi Kokusai Electric, Inc. Under terms of the contract, GES Inc. and Hitachi Kokusai’s Semiconductor Equipment Group will develop multiple field service teams with engineers from Vietnam to support Hitachi Kokusai’s semiconductor processing equipment products. The new agreement is the latest outsourced-engineering partnership with GES Inc. for support of the equipment users at more competitive costs, and aimed at improving customer satisfaction.

“GES, Inc. is enabling us to improve the quantity and the quality of the services that we provide to our customers, which is exactly what they demand from world-class suppliers. This mutually beneficial relationship should allow us to build a prosperous partnership together,” says Masakazu Ozawa, president & CEO of Kokusai Electric Semiconductor Service, Inc.

Hitachi Kokusai’s Semiconductor Equipment Group has a long and successful history of providing semiconductor equipment to the industry. They have been awarded the top supplier of the year award many times from a number of leading-edge semiconductor companies for their contributions. Meanwhile, GES has been securing numerous contracts with equipment companies to provide them quality engineering talent from Vietnam at more affordable costs to their global operations. The semiconductor buildup in Vietnam continues to gather momentum as more device manufacturers, assembly and test house providers, and equipment companies have announced operations there to improve their margins, and prepare for future global markets.

“This contract from another of the world’s foremost suppliers of semiconductor equipment, and with such an established reputation for top technical performance, is yet another validation of the industry’s confidence in our value added service solution,” says Don Tran, GES CEO.

About Hitachi Kokusai Electric, Inc.

Hitachi Kokusai Electric, Inc. designs and manufactures wireless communication and information system, broadcasting and video systems, and semiconductor manufacturing systems, and globally provides those systems to the United States, Europe, Asia, and other regions. Hitachi Kokusai Electric, Inc.’s common stock trades on Tokyo Stock Exchange (1st Section), and Osaka Securities Exchange (1st Section).

Visit www.hitachi-kokusai.co.jp/global

About Kokusai Electric Semiconductor Service, Inc.

Established in 1989, Kokusai Electric Semiconductor Service started business as the service division of Hitachi Kokusai Electric, Inc. provides solutions for various semiconductor equipment, covering installation, maintenance, conversion,renewal, and operator training, contributing stable operations and productivity of equipment. It leads all the subsidiaries of Hitachi Kokusai’s Semiconductor Equipment Group as a core company.

About GES, Inc.

Founded in 2006, GES provides worldwide field service engineering, design and engineering support, and manufacturing services to the semiconductor, FPD production equipment, and semiconductor manufacturing industries. The company has operations in the U.S., Vietnam, Japan, and Taiwan.

Visit www.geservs.com

February 14, 2008 — /PRNewswire/ — NORTHFIELD, MN — Northfield Automation, a leader in roll-to-roll process equipment for thin-material handling applications, announces the formation of Northfield Medimation, a wholly owned subsidiary that will diversify the company into the medical device market. The subsidiary provides advanced automation and robotics for applications such as cardio-vascular devices and fabrication of transdermal patches, test strips, and related diagnostic materials.

The company also announces the appointment of Jahn Stopperan as the subsidiary’s general manager. Formerly principal of Technasport, a new product development company, Stopperan brings more than 20 years of experience in business management, marketing, sales, and product development to his new role at Northfield Medimation.

“The medical device industry is a stable market with many new opportunities for automation that can benefit by having FDA validation completed by the equipment provider,” according to Brett Reese, chairman and chief executive officer of Northfield Automation. “In addition to medical, we are diversifying into the thin solar cell, electronic display and flexible battery industries to help us reach our growth goals of 25 percent per year,” he says.

Customization, reliability, and validation are Northfield Medimation’s competitive advantages based on its design-intensive focus and engineering expertise of its parent company.

Customized automation solutions are engineered to meet complex medical manufacturing requirements for single machines or integrated systems. Many applications are automated to reduce process variability, limit risk, and reduce manual content.

Complete validation services include documentation materials designed to meet each customer’s specifications and regulatory requirements. By outsourcing the validation task, medical device manufacturers can save post-production time as well as improve consistency and quality. It also frees up engineering resources to focus on other production ramp-up areas. This customized service increases the customer’s go-to-market confidence and guarantees equipment functionality.

Reliability of Northfield Medimation’s processes and equipment is based on shared technical and manufacturing resources with its parent company. The company’s market niche is middle-tier medical device manufacturers and divisions of larger med-tech companies, with needs ranging from small development projects to high-end, turnkey systems. Many of these customers may not have in-house validation capabilities.

About Northfield Automation Systems

Established in 2000, Northfield Automation Systems, Inc. designs, engineers, and fabricates automation machinery for OEMs and high-volume, custom manufacturers. Its engineers provide consultative support for streamlined manufacturing processes with turnkey, integrated equipment. The company’s vision is to become the global leader in web-based, high-precision, roll-to-roll processing of thin-film applications, including flexible electronics, display, solar, flexible battery, and organic electronics. Its wholly owned subsidiary, Northfield Medimation, focuses on advanced automation and robotics for the medical device industry. Both companies are located in Northfield, MN, which is 35 minutes south of Minneapolis.

Visit www.northfieldautomation.com
www.northfieldmedimation.com

February 14, 2008 — /SAN JOSE, CA/ — A recent analysis of SEMI fab database reports shows that spending on fab construction projects and fabs equipping will likely see double digit declines in 2008 as many fab construction projects are put on hold, pushed out to end of the year, or into 2009.

Spending on equipping fabs in 2008 is expected to decline 15 percent compared to the 9 percent growth last year. The analysis represents a downward revision of the outlook reported in the October 2007 fab database report.

The reports indicate a decline in equipment spending by almost 10 percent for foundries, about 15 percent for memory, and about 30 percent for the logic/MPU segment.

Spending on fab construction projects is expected to decline in 2008 by 9 percent, compared to the strong growth in 2007. In 2008, 12 new volume fabs are expected to start construction, which represents a total capacity addition, when fully operational, of 1.53 million wafers per month in 200-mm equivalents. The five biggest spenders on fab construction projects in 2008 are expected to be Flash Alliance (Toshiba/Sandisk JV),
Samsung, Hynix, Rexchip (Elpida/Powerchip JV) and Powerchip.

Semiconductor manufacturing capacity is projected to grow by about 11 percent in 2008, which is consistent with the numbers reported in the October 2007 edition of the report. Memory still retains the largest share of total fab capacity, and is expected to increase this year to 41 percent from 38 percent in 2007.

Memory fabs are projected to increase capacity by 18 percent year over year, followed by logic/MPU, which are expected to see five percent growth. Foundries are forecasted to add about eight percent more capacity.

Visit www.semi.org/fabs

February 12, 2008

February 11, 2008 — /PRNewswire/ — DEERFIELD, IL — Baxter Healthcare Corporation is providing an update to its January 2008 heparin sodium injection 1,000 units/ml 10 and 30-ml multi-dose vial voluntary recall of nine lots, which the company initiated as a precautionary measure due to an increase in reports of adverse reactions that may be associated with the drug. Since the recall, Baxter has received reports of similar adverse reactions occurring in other lots of 1,000 units/ml, 10 and 30-ml multi-dose vials; 5,000 units/ml and 10,000 units/ml multi-dose vials; and 5,000 units/ml single-dose vials when single doses were combined to create a larger bolus dose.

Nearly all reported adverse reactions have occurred in three specific areas of product use

February 11, 2008 — /OAK BROOK, IL/ — Joint Commission Resources (JCR) today announced the launch of a new consulting program to help health care organizations across the nation create a patient-safe environment by critically evaluating, applying, and implementing science-based evidence surrounding the relationship between design, patient safety, and quality. JCR is an affiliate of The Joint Commission.

The new service offers organizations an integrated approach to understanding, through an effective process, how evidence relates to design, safety, and quality, and how to apply that evidence in making confident decisions about design. By combining clinical and engineering services, organizations can build and maintain a patient-safe environment. The consulting and education service works with organizations at any phase of design and provides project assessment and preparation; analysis, feedback, and implementation.

“Understanding how to implement and sustain patient safety into the design of health care organizations is a critical need today,” says Karen H. Timmons, president and CEO, JCR. “This program will provide organizations with confidence in their designs for quality and safety at any stage of their development. The program will help organizations understand the implications of design on quality and safety, and guide them to the appropriate conclusions and applications.”

The health and safety design service will combine the expertise of a team of practitioner consultants that includes engineers and clinical health design professionals in order to help health care organizations establish and maintain a patient-safe environment at every step, from blueprints through commissioning.

JCR has more than 20 years of experience in helping health care organizations continually improve their operations in patient safety, infection prevention and control, medication management, environment of care, and accreditation preparation.

Visit www.jcrinc.com

February 11, 2008 — /PRNewswire/ — FAIR LAWN, NJ — Tasker Products Corp. (BULLETIN BOARD: TKER), a manufacturer and marketer of proprietary technology effective in inhibiting pathogenic bacteria, today reported that it has installed its equipment to dispense its poultry processing application, Tasker Blue, in a new plant operated by one of the top 10 poultry processors. The plant will conduct a short test of the application to gauge its effectiveness, during which it will purchase the product at a trial price. Following this trial period, future orders of the product would be at regular market prices.

Greg Osborn, Tasker’s executive chairman, says, “The Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture recently published new policies for Salmonella verification sampling. Under the new policy, beginning on March 28, establishments operating at poor Salmonella performance levels of category 2 or category 3 will be posted in the FSIS website. The program, Salmonella Initiative Program (SIP), is voluntary, however, processors wishing to continue using on-line reprocessing or operate under HIMP (HACCP-based Inspection Models Project), must participate in the program. Under SIP, processors will be required to test for Salmonella, E Coli, and Campylobacter during the rehang and post-chill points. If a processor cannot achieve category 1 (the best level), then they must intensify the frequency of testing. As an incentive, the FSIS is also providing five SIP establishments that have achieved category 1 and have delivered superior results with further waivers, such as the authorization to increase line speeds.”

Mr. Osborn continues, “The SIP program heightens the needs for processors to ensure that bacteria are arrested early during the processing cycle in order to meet the tightening regulations. Tasker Blue is a leading product in the control of bacteria in the scalder, picker, and NY Dress cabinet; all pre-evisceration intervention points. Furthermore, the FSIS has already released an outline for additional rules proposed for 2009, which include additional testing points and further tightening of the standards. These initiatives introduced into poultry processing by the FSIS are also reaching the turkey and meat processing industry. We expect these developments to accelerate the market penetration of Tasker’s poultry processing applications, and our launch into beef.”

Lanny Dacus, Tasker’s president and CEO, adds, “We recently showcased Tasker Blue at the International Poultry Expo in Atlanta, GA. The response to our product was exciting. Increased regulatory pressure to more effectively address Salmonella bacteria at multiple intervention points, including the scalder, has heightened interest in Tasker Blue. We are now scheduling many installations at poultry processors who are interested in running trials to confirm the product’s efficacy and its positive effect on yield production. We are confident this will lead to continued roll-outs of our scalder application and achieving our goals.”

About Tasker Products

Tasker is a manufacturer, distributor, and marketer of eco-chemistry products with various applications that use the pHarlo technology. The pHarlo technology utilizes a highly charged and acidified, yet stable and safe, solution that enables copper sulfate, a compound with bacteriostatic properties, to remain active throughout a wide range of pH values. The Company currently markets Unifresh^R Footbath, a grooming aid product for dairy cows, Tasker Blue^R, an antibacterial solution for use in processing poultry, and Pacific Blue^TM Seafood Spray, an antibacterial spray for retail seafood counters. Tasker Products Corp. is headquartered in Fair Lawn, NJ.

Visit www.taskerproducts.com