Discrepancies have recently been noted between the results obtained and the accepted values when analysing samples of nigh copper content for lead by atomic absorption spectroscopy. Results for British Chemical Standard bronzes, for example, show apparent lead contents approximately an order of magnitude higher than expected. These discrepancies are attributed to emission by the nollow-cathode lamp used and absorption by the sample of the copper line at 2165.09 Å. The investigations leading to this conclusion and methods of avoiding the difficulty are described below.