A new, selective and sensitive on-site spectrophotometric method for the determination of antimony at trace level in water, soil and dust samples of Central India has been demonstrated. It is based on the color reaction of Sb(III) with I- ions in the presence of a cationic surfactant cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) in acidic media, and subsequent extraction of the complex with N-phenylbenzimidoylthiourea (PBITU) into chloroform to give a yellow colored complex. The value of apparent molar absorptivity of the complex in the terms of Sb is (7.84) x 10(4) l mol(-1) cm(-1) at 440 nm. The detection limit of the method is 5 ng ml(-1). In addition, the present method is free from interferences of all metal ions that are associated during the determination of antimony in environmental samples. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.