The invention discloses a method for measuring formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acetone in tobacco water-based adhesive by derivative-headspace gas chromatography, which comprises the following steps: (1) dispersing tobacco water-based adhesive in deionized water proportionally, shaking for extraction, centrifuging, collecting supernatant, adding into a headspace bottle, adding a derivatization reagent (water solution of pentafluorobenzyl hydroxylamine) proportionally, performing gland sealing, mixing, and performing headspace gas chromatography; and (2) drawing a standard curve of chromatogram peak area of a target analyte vs. concentration thereof, introducing the chromatographic results obtained in step (1) into the corresponding standard curve, and calculating the concentrations of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acetone in tobacco water-based adhesive. The invention establishes a simple and rapid method for accurately measuring formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acetone in tobacco water-based adhesive by derivative-headspace gas chromatography. The method of the invention is simple, rapid and accurate, realizes automation, and does not consume organic solvent.