Elemental impurities in pharmaceutical products can be harmful to the health of patients. In response, the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) is proposing two new chapters — 232 and 233 — to regulate more strictly the detection of trace elemental impurities in pharmaceuticals. The proposed chapters specify lower limits for trace elements in pharmaceuticals and recommend the use of instrumentation-based methods rather than the traditional precipitation-based detection techniques. Inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP–MS) and inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry (ICP–OES) are recommended as the techniques of choice.