Abstract: The contents of five heavy metal elements, which were lead, cadmium, chromium, mercury and nickel, in the mainstream smoke of four brands of cigarettes were determined by inductive coupling plasma-mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS).Most of the coefficients of variation for these trace elements were below 5%.The recoveries of these elements were from 89.3%to 105.0%.By this method, many trace elements could be analyzed quickly and simultaneously, the preparatory treatment of samples was simple, and the interference was low.