Portes LH. Política de controle do tabaco no Brasil

Abstract

IN THE BOOK 'POLÍTICA DE CONTROLE DO TABACO NO BRASIL' (Tobacco control policy in Brazil), Leonardo Henriques Portes endeavors a five-chapter comprehensively analysis of the Brazilian tobacco control policy in the recent decades. In addition to describing the evolution of the smokers' predominance in Brazil and in America's countries, the book analyzes the government tobacco control policies in different countries worldwide. The author1 understands that those national policies enabled the consensus for the adoption of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) by 181 countries and the European Union. It was the first international tobacco control treaty, ratified by Brazil in 2005. According to the author, national initiatives were already being carried out when Brazil ratified the treaty. However, the commitment within WHO strengthened and broadened the scope of Brazilian policy.The National Policy on Tobacco Control (PNCT) finds itself within the development complex context of the supranational regulatory public policies of risks to collective health, currently under strong pressure from ultra-right forces. Still, the author emphasizes the role of the Brazilian National Cancer Institute (Inca), headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, as the main entrepreneur of the PNCT agenda and manager of the National Commission for FCTC Implementation in Brazil (Conicq).The issue of vetoing the PNCT propositions is lively addressed in the publication. The author affirms that the tobacco industry and allied entities were decisive for the veto of part of the policy measures.Also the tensions concerning the referrals from the Sectorial Chamber of the Tobacco Production Chain, which relied on the participation of the federal and state governments until 2019, as the demonstrations and positioning of representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Development, Industry and Commerce and Labor and Employment held out against the commission proposals during most of the committee's trajectory.In that context, Portes 1 addressed the limits and challenges of the main tobacco control measures in Brazil -especially those regarding crop diversification in tobacco cultivated areas, fighting illicit trade and interference of the tobacco industry in politics.Portes 1 argues that the policy has achieved positive results due to the prestige of Brazilian politics in the international scenario, to its solid structure -having Inca, Conicq and Anvisa as references -and to the role of civil society. However, the author underlines that, as for politics, there remains the need to make progress in fighting illicit trade;