National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)

New National Standard for CO Screening by Pulse CO-OximetryTM
2008 NFPA 1584 establishes the routine use of Pulse CO-Oximetry

as a way to protect the lives of the nation’s firefighters from the dangers of CO Poisoning Irvine, California – February 14, 2008 – Masimo (NASDAQ: MASI), the inventor of Pulse COOximetry
and Measure-Through Motion and Low Perfusion pulse oximetry, announced today that the
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has made Carbon Monoxide (CO) screening by Pulse COOximetry a new national healthcare standard for firefighters potentially exposed to Carbon Monoxide poisoning. NFPA’s consensus codes and standards serve as the worldwide authoritative source on fire prevention and public safety—with virtually every building, process, service, design, and installation in society today is affected by NFPA documents.

The new standard, which became effective December 31, 2007 and was published on January 31, 2008, establishes that “any firefighter exposed to CO or presenting with headache, nausea, shortness of breath, or gastrointestinal symptoms” must be measured for CO poisoning by Pulse CO-Oximetry or other available methods. It also requires every fire department to establish Standard Operating Guidelines (SOGs) that outline uniform rehabilitation procedures for firefighters at incident scenes and training exercises.

Too often, even the most skilled first responders miss the chance to treat carbon monoxide poisoning early because, until Masimo invented Masimo Rainbow SET Pulse CO-Oximetry in 2005, there wasn’t a noninvasive way to detect elevated levels of CO in the blood. With the Masimo Rad-57 Pulse COOximeter, fire fighters, EMS professionals and ER clinicians can easily detect carbon monoxide poisoning by applying a noninvasive LED-based sensor on the victims or themselves, allowing for prompt and possibly life-saving treatment that can also limit the likelihood of long-tern cardiac and neurological damage.

Studies have shown that even a single high level exposure, or prolonged exposure to low levels of CO, has the potential to cause long-term heart, brain and organ damage. Long-term effects of CO include: cardiac arrests, Parkinson-syndromes affecting motor skills and speech, dementia, cortical blindness, acute renal failure, and muscle cell death.