A method for the determination of 17 phthalate acid esters（PAEs） in water-borne adhesives for cigarette by ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry（UPLC-MS/MS）was developed.The samples were dispersed with water and dissolved with methanol at constant volume,then extracted with a vortex mixer vigorously and centrifuged.After passed through an organic phase filter membrane,the extract was analyzed by UPLC-MS/MS.The interference of PAEs that chromatography system introduced was removed with a delay column.The results showed that,the calibration curves of 17 PAEs showed good linearities in the range of 0-5 μg/mL,with correlation coefficients greater than 0.994.The limits of quantitation were in the range of 0.010-0.479 μg/g.The recoveries ranged form 87.6% to 106.0% with relative standard deviations（RSDs,n=6） of 0.8%-6.2%.Compared with YC/T 333-2010 standard method,there was no significant difference between the data obtained by two methods.With the advantages of simplicity and stability,this method was used for the determination of 17 PAEs in water-borne adhesives.