A project of the Department of Health of the State of São Paulo is carrying out, in partnership with the Oncoguia Institute, workshops with elected officials to strengthen the fight against smoking in the municipalities of São Paulo.
The initiative contacts parliamentarians in selected cities to teach them anti-smoking strategies, which can then be converted into regional public policies aimed at controlling the disease. The project, supported by Umane, has already integrated 74 offices in 25 municipalities. According to the secretariat, it is planned to reach new cities next year.
The measure has so far given rise to ten bills. Two of them have already been approved in the city of Botucatu (238 km from São Paulo). The first creates a week dedicated to raising awareness against smoking in the municipality. The second requires establishments that sell cigarettes and tobacco products to display, in visible places, information on the existence of anti-tobacco programs in the SUS.
One of the reasons that led to the creation of the project is the development of electronic cigarettes in the country, according to the general superintendent of Umane, Thais Junqueira. “We want to fight against smoking as a whole, but electronic cigarettes are appearing and we must act very quickly against them,” he says.
A study published by Unifesp (Federal University of São Paulo) in June shows that 8.7% of adolescents aged 14 to 17 reported using electronic cigarettes in the past year.
In addition to including municipal legislators, the project involved community leaders, who took responsibility for conveying the strategies in their areas. The councilors who participated also shared their experience with colleagues from other cities.
For the coordinator of the National Tobacco Control Program in São Paulo, Sandra Marques, from a behavioral point of view, tobacco has been neglected. It is therefore important, she says, to keep communication work active. “Elected officials are at the end of the line, in direct contact with those who live in the cities. We really need them.”
According to Sandra, the work is not limited to health policies, it also includes the areas of education and public security to curb the sale of clandestine products, such as contraband and electronic cigarettes, banned in Brazil.
Among the projects under study, the municipal tobacco prevention and control program is being created in Franca, proposed by Councilor Marcelo Tidy (MDB). In Soracaba, a project, drawn up by councilor Izídio de Brito (PT), prohibits the use of electronic cigarettes in schools.
“The number of young people who are getting into vaping scares me, and the most worrying thing is that families don’t pay attention to it,” says Councilor Lalo Pagani (PSDB), responsible for projects in Botucatu. He cites studies by Unesp (Universidade Estadual Paulista) which identified serious damage to the lungs of vapers in his region.
In Botucatu, in addition to him, six other councilors participated in the training, including employees of the Town Hall.
At the end of the project, ten workshops were organized with 204 participants, explains Luciana. “The participants’ engagement on the subject had an impact, it reverberated on social networks and transformed into speeches in the Chambers. We hope that in the medium term, these texts will become laws.”
According to Sandra, the idea is to continue the project in the coming years and, if possible, to nationalize it.
The Public Health project benefits from the support of Umane, a civil association which aims to support initiatives aimed at promoting health.
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