The aim of this work consists of the implementation and validation of a methodology for determination of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in water samples and particulate matter by gas chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). The surface water analysis method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 41 PCBs; using the Solvent Accelerated Extraction (ASE) for the suspended particulate matter and the Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) for the dissolved fraction. Quantification was performed in Selective Reaction Monitoring (SRM) mode, with monitoring of two m/z precursor-product fragmentation patterns. The linearity of the analytical curves was confirmed by the coefficient of determination (R2), the random behavior of the residual plots and by the F test in the analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the regression. The homoscedasticity of the data was confirmed by the Cochran test. The limit of detection (LD) for each one of the two extraction methods used vary in a range of 0.06 to 0.50 ng L(-1) for the SPE and 0.01 to 0.12 ng L(-1) for the ASE. Regarding the repeatability studies, the coefficients of variation (CV) found were less than 20 per cent. The average recovery of the analytes ranged from 60 per cent to 118 per cent on Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) and from 65 to 106 per cent for the suspended particulate matter. The Method selectivity was evaluated by the F (Snedecor) test of homogeneity of variances and by the t-Test (Student) of means comparison. Possible losses during the process were monitored by using surrogate standards that were within acceptable limits. The validated method was further applied to analyze the surface water of Mangue Canal, central region of Rio de Janeiro, and the sum of total PCBs ranged from 2.17 ng L(-1) to 5.29 ng L(-1).