Abstract: Sewage sludge contains toxic and hazardous heavy metal thallium which can cause environmental pollution and damage when discharged into the atmosphere after incineration,so it is important to accurately determine the thallium content in combustible sewage sludge.In this study,thallium in municipal sludge was determined by inductively coupled opticalplasma emission spectrometry(ICP-OES)and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry(GFAAS),and quality control studies were performed,respectively.The results showed that both methods had good linearity,precision and accuracy in the determination of lead in solid waste with no significant differences,and both fully satisfied the analytical testing requirements.The absorption method of graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry has a lower detection limit and is suitable for the determination of thallium in sewage sludge at lower concentrations.Inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometry has a wide linear range and fast analysis speed,which is more advantageous in the analysis of large volume solid samples.