Organizational models for the sustainability of the National Tobacco Control Program: a pilot proposal to be adopted nationally

Abstract Introduction The consumption of tobacco products, from planting to consumption, is responsible for serious health problems, representing a cycle of diseases, poverty and deaths worldwide. This serious public health problem led Brazil to develop, from the 1980s onwards, a set of tobacco control measures, constituting a policy with legislative, economic, communication and educational actions, which has as its foundation the National Program for Control of Tobacco. Tobacco (PNCT). Objective This article is an experience report that is part of a national study carried out between 2020 and 2022, and describes actions through technical visits to tobacco control coordination offices in five states. Method The states were selected according to criteria established by Ditab/INCA, which coordinates the network of the State Program for Tobacco Control (PECT) in the 26 States and Federative Unit of the country. Thus, a State of each region was chosen: Tocantins (North), Paraíba (Northeast), Goiás (Midwest), Rio de Janeiro (Southeast) and Paraná (South). Results Practices were developed to enhance, improve and add technical, political, communication actions, among others, in order to give sustainability to the State Program and, more broadly, the PNCT.