In order to determine benzene and its homologues in water-based emulsion adhesives for cigarette, the adhesive was dissolved by methyl acetate, ethyl acetate, butyl acetate, propylene glycol monomethyl ether, ethylene glycol monomethyl ether, N, N-dimethylformamide, dimethyl sulfoxide, n -hexane, cyclopentane, acetone and cyclohexanone, respectively. The benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, o or m or p -xylene and styrene in 13 water-based emulsion adhesive samples were determined by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry under selected ion monitoring mode. The results showed that: 1) dimethyl sulfoxide was preferable as a solvent for cigarette emulsion adhesives; 2) the recoveries of the compounds were from 96% to 103% with RSDs of 4.65% to 7.27% and the limits of detection of 0.06 to 0.09 µg/g; and 3) the total contents of the said benzene homologues in adhesive samples were from 0.73 to 7.94 µg/g, the contents of benzene and xylene+toluene were from 0.29 to 4.86 and from 0.12 to 5.76 µg/g, respectively.