Some enzymatic characteristics of human eosinophil peroxidase were compared with those of human myeloperoxidase. Both enzymes catalyzed the oxidation of iodide by hydrogen peroxide. This assay proved to be very sensitive; the activity of 100 eosinophils/ml could be measured. The position of the pH optimum of this reaction was linearly dependent on the logarithm of the iodide/H2O2 ratio. At the same substrate ratio, this optimum was about 1 pH unit higher for eosinophil peroxidase than for myeloperoxidase. This difference may be related to the action of myeloperoxidase inside an acidified phagolysosome as opposed to the extracellular action of eosinophil peroxidase on the surface of certain parasites. Under defined conditions (KI, 1.4 mM; H2O2, 0.18 mM; cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, 0.008% [wt/vol]; pH 6), the activity of eosinophil peroxidase could be measured in a mixed granulocyte suspension independently of myeloperoxidase. Eosinophils from patients with eosinophilia were found to contain as much peroxidase activity as did eosinophils from healthy donors. No enzymatic differences in eosinophil peroxidase were found between the two types of donors.