In an evaluation of five additives commonly applied to cotton as dust suppressants, the amounts of additive released into the atmosphere as an oil mist or vapor during carding have been measured. The additive concentrations were influenced by the type and amount of additive applied and the fineness of the cotton. When applied to a high micronaire (5.4) cotton, the four examined additives containing a mineral oil plus surfactant yielded no detectable mist (i.e., <10 µg/m³ or 8 parts/billion) below application levels of 1.0%. Of the three of these additives evaluated on the low microniare (4.1) cotton, the add-on threshold of one remained 1% and that of the others decreased to 0.8% and 0.4%. For the one pure mineral oil evaluated, the threshold add-ons were about 0.5% and 0.3% for the high and low micronaire cottons, respectively. Thus, even if oil mists were found to present a health risk, dust suppressant additives can be selected which would emit no detectable mist at effective add-on levels.