Operationalizing the Exposure-Aligned Domain Framework: Inhalation-Aligned Airborne Mycotoxin Assessment

Indoor environmental testing frequently produces analytically valid results that become clinically or operationally misleading when the measurement domain is substituted for the exposure pathway of interest. In indoor mycotoxin investigations, interpretive drift most commonly occurs when dust-based findings are used to answer inhalation questions or when biological indicators are treated as chemical evidence.

The Exposure-Aligned Analytical Domain Framework for Indoor Mycotoxins (EADF-IM) was developed to prevent such substitution errors. Ritacco (2026a) formalized the physicochemical divergence of biological and chemical indicators across airborne, dust reservoir, and surface phases. Ritacco (2026b) articulated hazard-construct precedence and analytical domain non-equivalence as governing interpretive principles within EADF-IM.

This manuscript operationalizes those principles for indoor air–mediated exposure assessment. When the decision concerns indoor air–associated exposure, inhalation is the pathway of interest and breathing-zone, inhalable-fraction air sampling constitutes the domain-aligned evidentiary basis for exposure characterization (American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists [ACGIH], 2022; European Committee for Standardization [CEN], 1993, 2018; International Organization for Standardization [ISO], 1995). The mechanistic rationale, field implementation requirements, and interpretive limits necessary to preserve domain integrity are defined for clinicians and indoor environmental professionals engaged in indoor mycotoxin assessment.