Cetirizine hydrochloride reacted with $BiI_4^-$ in an acidic aqueous solution to form precipitate. After centrifugation, the atomic emission intensity of $Bi^{3+}$ contained in the supernatant solution was measured at the characteristic wavelength of 206.170 nm. The difference between the spectral signal intensity of the blank solution and that of the supernatant, ${Delta}I$, was linearly related to the concentration of cetirizine hydrochloride. As a result, a new inductively coupled plasmaatomic emission spectrometric (ICP-AES) method was developed for the analysis of cetirizine hydrochloride. The linear range was from 27.7 to 184.8 $mg{cdot}L^{-1}$, with a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.9961 and a detection limit of 9.6 $mg{cdot}L^{-1}$. This method is simple and accurate, Without using toxic organic solvents, and is feasible for the quality control of cetirizine hydrochloride tablets and capsules.