A new, simple and fast flow injection analysis (FIA) method has been developed for the indirect determination of nitrite. The proposed indirect automatic method is based on the oxidation of nitrite to nitrate using a lead(IV) dioxide oxidant microcolumn where the flow of the sample through the microcolumn reduces the $PbO_2$ solid phase reagent to Pb(II), which is measured by flame atomic absorption spectrometry. The absorbance of Pb(II) are proportional to the concentration of nitrite in the samples. The calibration curve was linear up to 30 mg $L ^{-1}$, with a detection limit of 0.11 mg $L ^{-1}$ for a 400 mL injected sample volume and a sampling rate of about 80 $h ^{-1}$. The results exhibit no interference from the presence of large amounts of ions. The developed procedure was found to be suitable for the determination of nitrite in foodstuffs and wastewaters. A relative standard deviation better than 0.9% was obtained in a repeatability study. The reliability of the method was established by parallel determination against the standard method.