Condensed tannins are a heterogenous group of plant natural products suspected to play a role in the etiology of byssinosis. It is not known, however, if the level of condensed tannin is present in aerosolized dust in sufficient quantity to induce a response among workers in this industry. We sought to determine if an existing method used for measuring tannin in plant tissue, a spectrophotometric method based on the absorbance of a 1% solution of tannin (E(1%)), was sufficiently sensitive to analyze dust deposited on vertical elutriator (VE) filters. This technique was compared to tannin levels measured by standardizing with a purified tannin. There was a significant correlation between the two methods. The tannin levels based on standardization with a pure tannin were 40% higher than the E(1%) method. The limit of detection (LOD) for the standardized technique was 1.4 µg tannin/mg dust. The LOD for the E(1%) method was estimated to be 2.3 µg tannin/mg dust. Based on these analyses it appears that both techniques are near the limit of detection for tannin in dust contained on VE filters; however with appropriate sampling and analytical modification it should be possible to measure the levels of tannin in dust collected on vertical elutriator filters.