California Outfits State's Hospitals With TVI Equipment And Awards TVI $1.7MM Order.

Business Editors

GLENN DALE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 8, 2003

TVI Corporation (OTCBB: TVIN) announced today that the State of California is outfitting all of its key hospitals with both TVI Decontamination Systems and with TVI's new Rapidly Deployable Surge Capacity Shelters.

The $1.7 million order, being processed through Fisher Safety, TVI's Distributor, will outfit approximately 65 hospitals with TVI's state-of-the-art Two Line Decontamination Systems and TVI's Surge Capacity Shelters.

The decontamination systems being bought by California utilize the most recent advances in decontamination technology including the new Active Curtains(TM) and leverages TVI's expertise in water heaters

and solution injection systems. Each Surge Capacity Shelter provides approximately 340 square feet of triage area and are deployable by six personnel in a matter of minutes. These shelters will help enable hospitals to accommodate expected casualty surges by offering shelter from inclement weather and providing space to effectively isolate cases and conduct triage, as well as affording protection from unwanted visual intrusion.

Additionally, interoperability and efficiencies are gained by California as the equipment mirrors systems being delivered to the State of Washington and the equipment currently in use by FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue Teams, as well as the National Medical Response Teams.

This award, following an exhaustive evaluation process, will help enable the state's hospitals to respond to unexpected disasters, both from natural causes and terrorism.

"We are honored to have been chosen to provide this equipment to the State of California, and we are pleased that our reputation with Rapidly Deployable Decontamination Technology has now allowed us to augment hospital capacity by offering our new Surge Capacity Shelters on a state-wide basis," Rick Priddy, CEO of TVI commented. "California has great foresight to understand that our current hospital capacity is likely to be overwhelmed in the event of a disaster, and these Surge Capacity shelters will go a long way to minimizing any detrimental impact. As the 11th state in the Union to standardize on our products, this award continues to validate our leadership," Mr. Priddy continued.

About TVI Corporation:

TVI Corporation, located in Glenn Dale, Maryland, is a leading supplier of rapid deployment shelters and signage, chemical/biological decontamination systems for the military, public health, and first response agencies. TVI additionally is a primary source to the military for thermal targets and thermal decoys. Its stock trades on the OTC Bulletin Board under the symbol "TVIN."

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking words or phrases such as "should", "believes", expects", "might result", and others. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance, as actual results could differ materially from our current expectations. Such risks and uncertainties include achieving order and sales levels to fulfill revenue expectations; our ability to respond to changes in the counter-terrorism, military, public safety, and first responder communities; adverse changes in governmental regulations; expected costs or charges, certain of which may be outside the control of the Company; the time and costs involved in the marketing and promotion for our products; the possible cancellation of orders for our products; general economic and business conditions; and competitive factors in our markets and industry generally. Numerous other factors could cause or contribute to such differences, including, but not limited to, those set forth in the Company's Annual Report to Stockholders, 10-KSB, 10-QSB, and other SEC filings. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as to the date of the press release. We assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements.

For more information concerning TVI, please visit us at: www.tvicorp.com.