Cigarettes prepared from tobacco grown in pots of soils amended with soft coal fly ash were smoked, and the mainstream and gaseous fractions were analyzed for total selenium concentration. Fly‐ash‐grown and control (soil‐grown) tobaccos contained, respectively, 0.79 and 0.03 ppm selenium. The quantities of selenium (ng per cigarette) found in the mainstream particuiate and gaseous fractions were, respectively, 62.4 and 246.0 for the fly‐ash‐grown and 8.6 and 12.0 for the control treatments. Studies of the absorption, retention, effects, metabolism, and excretion of selenium in the body are reviewed.