Lakeland Industries Announces Global Availability of Hazmat Suits for Ebola

RONKONKOMA, N.Y., Sept. 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Lakeland Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: LAKE), a leading global manufacturer of industrial protective clothing for industry, municipalities, healthcare and to first responders on the federal, state and local levels, today announced the global availability of its protective apparel for use in handling the Ebola virus.  In response to the increasing demand for specialty protective suits to be worm by healthcare workers and others being exposed to Ebola, Lakeland is increasing its manufacturing capacity for these garments and includes proprietary processes for specialized seam sealing, a far superior technology for protecting against viral hazards than non-sealed products. 

"Lakeland stands ready to join the fight against the spread of Ebola," said Christopher J. Ryan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lakeland Industries.  "We understand the difficulty of getting appropriate products through a procurement system that in times of crisis favors availability over specification, and we hope our added capacity will help alleviate that problem.  With the U.S. State Department alone putting out a bid for 160,000 suits, we encourage all protective apparel companies to increase their manufacturing capacity for sealed seam garments so that our industry can do its part in addressing this threat to global health.

Mr. Ryan continued, "With our diverse global operations and the breadth of our protective apparel line incorporating superior sealed seam technology, we are ideally situated to assist organizations worldwide as they handle Ebola.  Despite reports citing the short supply of protective suits for handling hazardous materials, we believe it is very important to alert those in need around the world that Lakeland has appropriately qualified and  certified suits, ample manufacturing capacity, and numerous distribution points to supply these garments."

Last Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon laid out plans to set up an Ebola crisis center, with a mission to halt the spread of the virus in West African countries in six to nine months. He is counting on public and private funding from around the world of some $600 million needed for supplies in West Africa. Nearly 2,300 people have died and 4,300 confirmed or probable cases of Ebola have been reported since March.  Mr. Ban said in a statement, "The number of cases is rising exponentially. The disease is spreading far faster than the response. People are increasingly frustrated that it is not being controlled." 

Within the past several weeks, Lakeland has provided suits that are being used by Doctors Without Borders in West Africa.  Lakeland's global team worked with leaders from Doctors Without Borders to ensure that the technical data and performance specifications for Lakeland's garments exceeded the necessary protective requirements.

Two days ago, an NBC affiliate reported that PCI Global, a non-profit group with offices in Washington, DC, sent a quantity of hazmat suits to Liberia for use in the treatment of patients with Ebola.  "These suits are essential to saving lives," said PCI Vice President Richard Parker in the report.  "There's a very short supply around the world.  We were able to procure these 276 suits through a medical supply company in California, so we bought them up as soon as we could."  The suits that were procured and shipped were sealed seam garments manufactured by Lakeland Industries.

Lakeland's ChemMAX 1 garments are being used in the fight against the Ebola virus based on their certification to EN 14126, the European standard for protective clothing for use against infective agents, and ASTM F1671 certification for protection from blood-borne pathogens along with its availability in sealed seam configurations.  Lakeland has the same certifications for other protective garments, including MicroMAX NS and the remaining ChemMAX product line.  

For additional product information or to place an order, please visit www.lakeland.com or contact customer service:

United States at 256-350-3873
Argentina at +54-11-4897-5760
Brazil at +55-11-3613-3700
Canada at 800-489-9131
Chile at +562-551-8562
China at +010-6437-9226
India at +91-8447556757
Mexico at 800-837-9236
Russia at +7-495-775-72-64
UK at +44-14304-78140

About Lakeland Industries, Inc.:

Lakeland Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: LAKE) manufactures and sells a comprehensive line of safety garments and accessories for the industrial protective clothing market.  The Company's products are sold by a direct sales force and through independent sales representatives to a network of over 1,200 safety and mill supply distributors. These distributors in turn supply end user industrial customers such as chemical/petrochemical, automobile, steel, glass, construction, smelting, janitorial, pharmaceutical and high technology electronics manufacturers, as well as hospitals and laboratories. In addition, Lakeland supplies federal, state, and local government agencies, fire and police departments, airport crash rescue units, the Department of Defense, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and many other federal and state agencies.  For more information concerning Lakeland, please visit the Company online at www.lakeland.com.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:  Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions as described from time to time in Press Releases and Forms 8-K, registration statements, quarterly and annual reports and other reports and filings filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission or made by management.  All statements, other than statements of historical facts, which address Lakeland's expectations of sources or uses for capital or which express the Company's expectation for the future with respect to financial performance or operating strategies can be identified as forward-looking statements.  As a result, there can be no assurance that Lakeland's future results will not be materially different from those described herein as "believed," "projected," "planned," "intended," "anticipated," "estimated" or "expected," or other words which reflect the current view of the Company with respect to future events.  We caution readers that these forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof.  The Company hereby expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statements to reflect any change in the Company's expectations or any change in events conditions or circumstances on which such statement is based.

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SOURCE Lakeland Industries, Inc.