A simple procedure involving a slurry has been used for the determination of trace elements in titanium(IV) oxide pigments by means of atomic-absorption spectrometry. Both electrothermal and flame atomisation techniques have been employed. The method has been used to determine copper, iron, manganese and lead by dispersing the pigments in water that contained 0.005%m/V of sodium hexametaphosphate. The limits for determination are as low as 0.1 µg g–1 using electrothermal atomisation and 2 µg g–1 using flame atomisation and a discrete sampling procedure. The advantages of this technique are its simplicity, speed of analysis and reduction of blank levels.