December 12th, 2017
Respiratory exposures to airborne endotoxin occur ina wide variety of domestic and occupational environments, due to the ubiquity of Gram-negative bacteria (GNB). These exposures may cause mild to severe respiratory illnesses. Correlations have been clearly established between endotoxin exposures and decreased pulmonary function in humans. However, attempts to establish reliable threshold limits for endotoxin are tenuous, due to a lack of consensus on standardized procedures for the sampling and quantitative analysis of endotoxin. Consequently, there are no widely accepted action levels for endotoxin exposure promulgated by federal regulatory agencies, industrial hygiene organizations, or consensus standards organizations. This article discusses the status of environmental endotoxin test methods and issues related to methods of standardization.