OBJECTIVE To establish a method for determination of allyl chloride in the workplace atmosphere by solvent desorption-capillary column gas chromatography. METHODS Allyl chloride in the atmosphere was adsorbed by activated charcoal tubes and desorbed using dichloromethane, and was then separated by capillary column gas chromatography and determined by flame ionization detector. RESULTS The concentration of allyl chloride showed a good linear relationship within the range of 0∼200 µg/ml. The linear regression equation was y = 1.27x-0.22 with the correlation coefficient r being 0.999 8. The limit of detection was 0.20 µg /mL. If 7.5 L of air was sampled, the minimum detectable concentration was 0.03 mg/m³. The intra-day and inter-day relative standard deviations (RSD) of repetitive measurement at the high, middle, and low concentration levels were 2.7%∼4.8%. The average sampling efficiency was 100%. The overall desorption efficiency was 94.4%. The breakthrough volume was over 0.59 mg (100 mg activated charcoal). CONCLUSIONS The method applies to the determination of allyl chloride in the workplace atmosphere.