Avitar Elected to National On-Site Testing Association (NOTA) Board of Directors

July 25, 2000

CANTON, MA, July 25, 2000–Avitar, Inc. (AMEX: AVR) announced today that it has been elected to the Board of Directors of the National On-site Testing Association (NOTA). NOTA’s mission is to gain industry consensus for on-site drug and alcohol testing, and to advocate setting industry-regulated guidelines that support workplace drug testing at state and federal agencies in the United States. Michael J. DeFeo, Avitar’s Director of Marketing, will represent the Company on the Board and will help shape the direction of NOTA’s goals and policies.

"We believe that saliva-based, on-site drug testing is an exciting new technology. Because of the advantages of immediate test results at reduced costs, it is a vast improvement over the laboratory process. With Avitar being active in on-site oral fluid drug testing, we welcome them to our Board of Directors," said David Evans, Executive Director of NOTA.

"Avitar supports NOTA in propelling national recognition of on-site drug testing. We are honored to join the NOTA Board as the only representative with a rapid oral fluid test on the market. Mike’s involvement will champion NOTA’s future efforts," said Peter Phildius, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Avitar.

The National On-site Testing Association (NOTA) headquartered in Flemington, New Jersey, is an advocacy and resource center for on-site drug and alcohol testing. It is the only industry association that advances the benefits of on-site drug testing through targeted education and lobbying efforts. NOTA defines "on-site test" as a drug test that is easily portable and can be administered in a location outside a laboratory such as a work site or a probation or parole office. NOTA recommends on-site drug tests that meet requirements of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for commercial distribution and that can meet generally accepted cutoff levels such as those in the Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs. On-site drug and alcohol testing produces rapid documentable results using simple FDA cleared or DOT approved tests that do not require sending a specimen to a laboratory.

NOTA membership consists of consumers, manufacturers and distributors of on-site tests. NOTA Board members include: American BioMedica, Avitar, Inc., Biosite Diagnostics, Casco Standards, Drug Check, Inc., LifePoint, Inc., Medtox, Roche Diagnostic Corp., and Syva..

Michael J. DeFeo, with over 10 years of experience in the diagnostics field, joined Avitar as Director of Marketing in June 1999. He is an active member on the Government Relations Committee of the Drug and Alcohol Testing Industry Association (DATIA). DeFeo was formerly Marketing Manager of Laboratory Systems at Elan Diagnostics, and previously held product management and sales positions with Chiron Diagnostics, Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur and Bio-Rad Laboratories.

Avitar, Inc. (AMEX:AVR) headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts, develops, manufactures and markets innovative medical devices based on core technologies in oral fluid diagnostics and customized polyurethane applications. The Company markets a unique portfolio of substance abuse testing products and services that include ORALscreen^TM, the world’s first rapid point-of-contact oral fluid test for drugs of abuse, HAIRscreen^TM, a laboratory-based test for long term drug abuse using hair, and several other specialized tests for drugs of abuse. Avitar also markets an oral fluid collection system for DNA testing as well as a proprietary line of polyurethane-based high tech medical devices. For more information, see Avitar’s website at avitarinc.com.

This release forward looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, including the development and marketing of new applications and other risks that are detailed from time to time in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.