11 March 2008

LaSalle/Peru, IL – Carus Corporation has been notified that the LaSalle, IL, manufacturing facility has received the American Chemistry Council’s Responsible Care® Management System (RCMS) certification. Responsible Care is an initiative of the American Chemistry Council to ensure that chemical companies act in every way responsibly, from the way they buy raw materials to how and to whom they sell their products. As part of Carus’ continuing tradition of more than 90 years of environmentally responsible activities, Carus Corporation is a committed participant in the Responsible Care program.

A key element of the Responsible Care Management System is mandatory certification by an independent third party auditor. To achieve this certification, Carus Corporation had to develop and implement procedures on how it manages its health, environmental, and safety practices. Part of this program is a commitment to continuous improvement – it’s built into the system. The participation of every employee in the facility was necessary to meet the planning, implementation, and training objectives. Throughout the past year, Carus employees have worked together to achieve results in a number of key areas including community awareness and emergency response, security, distribution, employee health and safety, pollution prevention, process safety, and product stewardship. With this type of commitment and dedication from all their employees, Carus expects to achieve even higher standards of performance, safety, and value.

Responsible Care helps chemical companies go above and beyond government requirements. In the United States, Responsible Care companies have reduced environmental releases by 78% and achieved an employee safety record that is more than five times safer than the average of the rest of the U.S. manufacturing sector. Carus, along with the other Responsible Care companies in the US, openly communicate their results to the public, making available the most performance information of any private sector industry group.

Carus Corporation, founded in LaSalle, IL, in 1915, is a leading manufacturer of permanganates, which Carus manufactures mainly for environmental applications: to improve the quality of drinking water, to treat municipal and industrial wastewater, in air purification systems, and in the remediation (clean-up) of contaminated sites.