Abstract
The concentration of airborne microbes, their endotoxins and the prevalence of byssinotic symptoms among workers were measured in the cardrooms of seven cotton spinning, a wool spinning and two cotton waste mills and in a dusty workroom of a group of five willowing mills, a tea-packing plant and a pipe tobacco factory. The concentration of microbes cultured on endoagar plates were found to correlate with byssinosis prevalence (r>0.95, P<0.001). The concentration of nutrient agar microbes correlated with prevalence less well (r>0.77, P<0.01) and that of fungi and endotoxins not at all.