Avitar's ORALscreen DRUGOMETER Deployed At SaveMart as Effective Drug Free Workplace Tool

Major West Coast Grocery Benefits from Innovative On-site Oral Drug Screen

April 27, 2005

CANTON, Mass., April 27, 2005 – SaveMart Supermarkets, a California-based 120 store grocery chain, reports on the multiple benefits of oral on-site drug testing, Avitar’s (Amex: AVR - News) ORALScreen DRUGOMETER.

"SaveMart’s experience using Avitar’s ORALscreen solution is further proof that oral-fluid drug screening is significantly more effective than traditional lab-based urine testing," said Peter Phildius, Chairman and CEO of Avitar. "Oral-based drug free workplace programs translate into measurable improvements to the bottom line, more competitive hiring practices, and improved worker safety."

"SaveMart was repeatedly losing potential hires due to the lengthy urine-testing process," said Jim Pucci, SaveMart’s Director of Loss Prevention. "Urine testing took four days on average, while we now get results in 5-15 minutes with Avitar’s product. Another issue with urine testing, sample substitution or contamination, ways that applicants can beat a urine drug test, is virtually eliminated by oral testing, which is done during the job interview and is directly observed."

Pucci continued, "In the time since we’ve switched from urine testing to oral-fluid testing, our workers compensation incident rate has decreased 17%. Our employee turnover rate is 20 points lower than the industry average, and we’re not losing candidates anymore because we can hire them on-the-spot. We’ve come to rely on Avitar as a partner and the on-site oral fluid drug screening as a standard practice at SaveMart. It has helped us to overcome many of the issues that surround drug abuse in the workplace."