LOS ANGELES, April 8, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Universal Detection Technology (OTCBB:UDTT) today commented on a hearing held on April 5, 2005 by The Committee on Government Reform's Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations on dealing with the detection of anthrax during the recent scare in March and the incident in 2001 that shut down Senate and House buildings. The committee heard testimony from a number of government agencies including the U.S Postal Service (USPS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The oversight hearing was called by Chairman Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) to examine the federal response when anthrax is detected. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report to the committee in March titled "Anthrax Detection: Agencies Need to Validate Sampling Activities in Order to Increase Confidence in Negative Results." The report stated that because of a lack of "validated sample collections" and "analytical methods" conducted by the USPS, CDC and the EPA, results of tests done for the detection of anthrax in 2001 should be treated with skepticism. Regarding the hearing Rep. Shays added, "More than three years after the anthrax mail attacks, the lack of standardized detection and testing procedures poses a risk to national security. Every false positive brings multiple federal agencies stumbling to the scene with no real plan, and every false negative risks complacency in the face of a lethal threat."
"A good portion of the hearing was devoted to hearing testimony from officials of the different agencies present, on the GAO report recommending probability testing as the most viable method for testing for anthrax over the target testing method currently adapted by the USPS." According to UDT's Director of R&D, Amir Ettehadieh "Target sampling is the best approach for the mail sorting facilities where mail has been identified as a potential source of contamination; however, this method is not economically viable to protect facilities where the source of contamination is unknown. UDT's Anthrax 'Smoke' Detector bridges the gap between probability testing and target testing. By notifying first responders to an elevated bacterial spore count, the ASD reduces the randomness of probability testing since an elevated bacterial spore count is a likely signature of an airborne anthrax attack," adds Amir Ettehadieh.
About Universal Detection Technology
Universal Detection Technology (UDT), founded in 1973, is a developer of monitoring technologies, including bio-terrorism detection devices. Management believes that the Company's technology, together with third party technologies and devices, has positioned it to capitalize on growth and value opportunities related to Homeland Security. UDT, in cooperation with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), has developed a bio-terror `smoke' detector, which combines JPL's spore detection technology with UDT's aerosol capture device.
For more information, please visit http://udtt.invrel.net or http://www.udetection.com.
Except for historical information contained herein, the statements in this news release are forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause a company's actual results, performance and achievement in the future to differ materially from forecasted results, performance, and achievement. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the funding of amounts of capital adequate to provide for our working capital needs and our timely repayment of debt, our ability to timely and cost effectively complete the development and testing of our products targeted to the bio-chemical market, our ability to commercially produce our products on a profitable basis, commercial acceptance of our products, product price volatility, product demand, market competition and general economic conditions, and other factors described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation and do not intend to revise or update publicly any forward looking statements for any reason.