A laboratory study was conducted to develop a simplified analytical method to quantitatively extract heavy metals from airborne particulate matter collected by the hi‐volume sampling technique. X‐ray diffraction was used to identify the major crystalline materials collected. The composition of the extraction mixture was varied to determine optimum concentrations of the mineral acids required. A comparative study was performed to test the efficiency of the new method with that of the well‐known Soxhlet extractor procedure. Additionally, twenty standard filter strips containing varying amounts of lead were supplied by EPA for analysis in a blind study. The values determined for the test strips were in excellent agreement with the known values. The effect of low‐temperature ashing on the determination of lead was also investigated. The simplified extraction method yields data that compares very favorably with the Soxhlet extractor procedure without the hazards of boiling acids and high cost per analysis associated with the Soxhlet method.