To study the transfer of heavy metals in snus into saliva during its taking process, artificial saliva was utilized as extractant instead of saliva in mouth and heavy metals in snus were extracted under ultrasonic conditions and determined by microwave digestion coupled with determination by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP–MS) to establish a simulation testing method for determination of 6 different heavy metals including Cr, Ni, Cd, Pb, As and Se. Parameters such as volume of artificial saliva for extraction and ultrasonic extraction time were optimized and standard curve for determination of 6 heavy metals were established, which showed good linear correlations with all correlation coefficient r > 0.999 7 and . Detection limit and quantitation limit of the method were less than 0.1 ng/mL and the standard addition recovery rates of snus samples were in the range of 93.8%–101.8%. The transfer rate of 6 different heavy metals into artificial saliva for seven snus samples tested by the method were listed in ascending order as follows: 2.52%–16.62% for Cr, 7.97%–22.51% for Ni, 8.44%–31.40% for Cd, 10.71%–38.70% for Se, 18.94%–40.84% for As and 10.71%–43.60% for Pb.