The importance of legislative measures on tobacco control in Brazil

In the tobacco control program, educational, socioeconomic, ecological and legislative actions should be planned. Legislative actions should include the federal, state and municipal spheres, have a primarily preventive purpose and federal reach.

Survey of bills presented in both legislative houses at federal level, House of Representatives and Senate (which together form the National Congress) and the resulting laws.

In the period from 1965 to 2015, 254 bills were filed with the House of Representatives and, from 1971 to 2015, 68 others were presented to the Senate.

In the House of Representatives, of the 254 bills, 68.9% were archived/rejected/returned, 14.9% did not have a result, 12.2% are currently being processed/analyzed by commissions, 2.0% refer to the inclusion of amendments/law annexes, 1.2% were transformed into legal norm/proposition of origin and 0.8% were transformed into laws. In the Senate, of the 68 bills, 19.1% were filed, 33.8% did not have a result, 4.4% were currently being processed, and 42.7% referred to changes in the law. Anti--tobacco actions were more prevalent in the periods 1979-1984 by the AMB, 1985-2007 by MS/INCA, and in 2008-2015 by the ACT.

Tobacco control legislation has progressed constantly, with the provocation of legislators from both Houses triggered by the MS/INCA and civil entities committed to smoking control, such as a number of non-governmental organizations (especially the AMB and the ACT).