RAE Rae Systems Common Stock

RAE Systems Inc. (NYSE Amex: RAE) today issued a reminder of the dangers of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning during the 2011 winter season. According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CO is the leading cause of accidental poisoning death in the U.S., killing about 400 people each year.

In an effort to help increase awareness and education within the U.S. fire service of the toxic threats of CO, hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and other gases, RAE Systems has partnered with the Fire Smoke Coalition, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping first responders better understand the life-long consequences of breathing smoke and its toxic byproducts.

Shawn Longerich, the executive director of the Fire Smoke Coalition, said: "In today's hazardous fire-smoke environment, detection is the only means of protection for firefighters. It signals them that they need to remain on their air tanks. Because of the increased toxicity of fire smoke, firefighters must accept that CO and HCN are evident at every fire scene at some level and can only be detected through air monitoring with gas detection. Ignoring the toxicants will inevitably cause short or long-term illness and disease -- and in too many situations -- death."

CO is a colorless, odorless gas formed when fossil fuels fail to completely burn, often from gas appliances, furnaces, fireplaces or water heaters. It often renders victims unconscious or in a coma before causing death or long-term health damage.

Throughout the nation, firefighters and other first responders who could be exposed to CO in residential scenarios are increasingly deploying the latest gas-detection monitors, such as those from RAE Systems, in an effort to keep their personnel and the public safe from toxic gas threats.

Keeping First Responders Safe from CO For the Chicago Fire Department (CFD), a RAE Systems' customer, a rash of calls involving unseen and odorless gas incidents prompted the department to upgrade its single-gas monitors to four-gas detectors. The department added the QRAE II multi-gas instrument from RAE Systems on every truck at its 102 firehouses. Other departments use RAE Systems' single-gas monitors, such as personal monitors from its full-featured ToxiRAE product family.

Seth Martin, a paramedic and lieutenant for the Ketchum Fire Department in Idaho, saved lives by using a ToxiRAE 3 "CO" product from RAE Systems: "On entering the residence our new ToxiRAE 3 almost instantly started alarming. It was the first time it had since we placed it in service a month earlier. Our first reaction was that we must have bumped it or something, then we looked at the readout: 430 parts-per-million (ppm) of carbon monoxide. This clued us into an immediate danger to life and health environment, and we rapidly removed a female, a male -- both unconscious -- and ourselves from the home. It ended up saving their lives, and kept us safe. They were both evacuated by life-flight to a hyperbaric chamber," stated Martin in a November 2009 news release.

For more information on products from RAE Systems for CO detection, email raesales@raesystems.com or visit www.raesystems.com.

About RAE Systems RAE Systems Inc. (NYSE Amex: RAE) is a leading global provider of rapidly deployable, connected, intelligent gas-detection systems that enable real-time safety and security threat detection. RAE Systems products are used in more than 120 countries by many of the world's leading corporations and government agencies.

RAE Systems offers a full line of wirelessly enabled solutions, including personal, hand-held, transportable, and fixed instruments designed to meet the needs of any usage scenario. Applications include energy production, refining, industrial and environmental safety, public-venue safety and government first-responder markets.

For more information about RAE Systems, please visit raesystems.com.

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Contact Information: Lee Flanagin 408-952-8252 lflanagin@raesystems.com