In this study, a novel method has been developed for the simultaneous detection of nitrate and nitrite using CdTe quantum dot-enhanced chemiluminescence(CL) from peroxynitrous acid-carbonate(ONOOH-Na2CO3), coupled with the reduction of nitrate in the presence of copperized cadmium column. The corresponding linear regression equation of nitrite was established in the range of 0.3–75μM, the detection limit(S/N = 3) was 0.12 μM, and the relative standard deviation(RSD) for seven repeated measurements of 1.0 μM nitrite was 1.9%; the corresponding linear regression equation of nitrate was established in the range of 1.0–100 μM, the detection limit(S/N = 3) was 0.26 μM, and the relative standard deviation(RSD) for seven repeated measurements of 1.0 μM nitrate was 1.5%. Moreover, this proposed method has been successfully applied to detect nitrite and nitrate in human urine with good accuracy and precision. Good agreements were obtained for the determination of nitrite and nitrate in human urine between the present approach and the standard spectrophotometric method. The recoveries were found to fall in the range between 94% and 105% for nitrite, 96.6% and 110.4% for nitrate.