10 March 2003

Warren, NJ - Smiths Detection announces its new high throughput IONSCAN®-LS trace detection instrument designed to provide chemists with a new tool for identification and quantification of trace chemicals. The instrument is designed and manufactured at the facility in New Jersey.

The IONSCAN-LS is a new Ion Mobility Spectrometer specifically designed for pharmaceutical and chemical laboratory environments. The IONSCAN-LS utilizes the same technology as other Smiths Detection systems deployed throughout the world for security applications in the detection of illicit drugs and explosives. The IONSCAN-LS selectively ionizes organic compounds and separates them according to their unique "time of flight". Solid or liquid samples can be easily introduced, with little or no sample preparation. The analysis is fast and simple and typically completed within 6 to 20 seconds with the results being displayed on the color screen. Method development is quick and new target analyses can be programmed into the instrument within minutes. Calibration is performed automatically. The IONSCAN-LS is sensitive and capable of detecting picogram to nanogram levels of most chemicals. The IONSCAN-LS lets you analyze samples easier, faster and less expensively than other instruments available today.

IONSCAN® systems are the word's leading trace explosives detector and are currently installed at more than 130 airports in the USA and many airports throughout the world.

About Smiths

Smiths Detection and Smiths Heimann form the detection and security systems business of Smiths Aerospace. They are both world leaders in their markets - Smiths Detection in trace detection equipment for chemical & biological agents, explosives and narcotics; Smiths Heimann in x-ray security systems to detect illegal or hazardous items and explosives. Smiths Aerospace, a part of Smiths Group, is the leading transatlantic aerospace equipment company, with its 12,000 staff and $2bn revenues split equally between Europe and North America.