A thin-layer electrochemical cell has been developed as a detector for air pollutants, and tested with S02-air and Cl2-air mixtures. The cell gives well-defined, reproducible signals proportional to pollutant concentrations down to 20 ppb. Two electroanalytical procedures are described for monitoring or sampling polluted air with the cell: (1) a controlled-potential experiment in which the current-time response of the cell is related to pollutant concentration, and (2) an experiment similar to stripping analysis in which pollutants are first accumulated at an electrode surface under controlled potential conditions, and then analyzed voltammetrically.