The importance of legislative measures on tobacco control in Brazil.

INTRODUCTION: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. OBJECTIVE: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. METHOD: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. RESULTS: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. CONCLUSION: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).