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People caught smoking in bars and restaurants in Puerto Rico faced fines Friday as a ban on lighting up in enclosed public spaces took effect.
The law was approved last year over the objections of some in the tourism industry. It also prohibits smoking in private cars with children under 13 inside.
Violators face a penalty of $250 for a first offense and up to $2,000 for repeat violations.
Opponents say the ban threatens tourism on an island where many people like to smoke while betting in the nearly two dozen casinos, which are considered key to Puerto Rico's $3 billion tourism industry.
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Touted as the Caribbean's toughest smoking ban, Puerto Rico's "clean air act" not only prohibits smoking in enclosed public areas, but also in private cars carrying children under 13 and in open-air terraces or outdoor bars with one or more employees.
Puerto Rico's governor signed the law this year over the objections of some in the $3 billion tourist industry, who feared it might turn away tourists. In 2005, Floridians made up 17 percent of Puerto Rico's 1.3 million U.S. tourists who stay in hotels, the only group officials track by residence. An additional 2.3 million visitors arrived on cruise ships or stayed with relatives last year.
Studies suggest tourism officials may not have much to fear from the smoking ban. The University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research found that sales at Florida restaurants increased by 7 percent after the state's smoking ban went into effect in 2003. A July 2006 report examined sales tax receipts in New York City and New York State between 1999 and 2004 and found that city and statewide smoking bans had no financial impact on bars and restaurants.
In San Juan, even smokers were not fuming over the ban. . . .
The legislation was not prompted by high smoking rates on the island. Only 13 percent of adults smoke in Puerto Rico, making it the third-lowest rate in the United States. Only Utah, with 11 percent, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with 9 percent, have lower rates. In Florida, 22 percent of adults smoke.
Still, smoking-related illnesses cost Puerto Rico $1.1 billion in lost productivity and health-care expenses, said Antonio Cases, director of the Tobacco Control and Prevention Division of Puerto Rico's Health Department.
Night after night for almost seven years Loraine Cardona inhaled clouds of acrid cigar and cigarette smoke at the Diamond Palace Casino in Condado, San Juan's hip tourist district. A supervisor at the blackjack tables, Cardona wheezed though bouts of bronchitis, pneumonia and asthma, while players puffed into the wee hours of the night.
''If there were seven players in front of me, four of them would be smoking. It was as if I were smoking four cigarettes at once,'' said Cardona, 34. ''My skin smelled like nicotine.''
The smoke hung so heavy that managers at the Diamond Palace took a gamble of their own and banned smoking six months ago. In March, however, all of the island's restaurants, bars and its 17 other casinos will follow the Diamond's suit. Touted as the Caribbean's toughest smoking ban, Puerto Rico's ''clean air act'' not only prohibits smoking in enclosed public areas, but also in private cars carrying children under 13 and in open-air terraces or outdoor bars with one or more employees.
lawmakers on Thursday passed what would be the toughest anti-smoking law in the Caribbean. The governor said he will sign the restrictions over the objections of some in the tourism industry, banning smoking in bars, restaurants and other public buildings because of health concerns for the employees.
Violators of the law, set to take effect next year, would face a fine of $250 for a first offense, but it is unclear how strenuously it would be enforced.
The law would set Puerto Rico apart from its Caribbean and Latin American neighbors. . . .
would also ban smoking in cars carrying passengers younger than 13.
Opponents see the law as a threat to tourism on an island where many people like to puff on a giant stogie, drink in hand, while betting in one of Puerto Rico's nearly two dozen casinos. The gambling halls are key to the territory's $3 billion tourism industry.
The Puerto Rican Senate has passed a law that would ban smoking in bars, casinos and other public places -- as well as in private cars with children aboard.
The bill, which prohibits smoking in cars carrying passengers under 13 years old, was adopted unanimously on Feb. 6. It now heads to the House of Representatives for approval.
Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila -- who vetoed an earlier bill because it was too broad -- was expected to sign the legislation into law soon.
"To earn a living, many employees are obliged to breathe so much secondhand smoke," Sen. Maria de Lourdes Santiago Negron said. "They have the right to breathe clean air."
The Puerto Rico Senate on Monday unanimously approved a House bill intended to ban smoking in certain areas such as public buildings, agencies, public corporations, as well as public and private elevators.
The bill also bans smoking in restaurants, cafeterias, bakeries, fast-food restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs, and liquor stores.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. (NYSE:RTR), parent of the No. 2 U.S. tobacco firm, said on Thursday it has been ordered by a jury in Puerto Rico to pay $500,000 to the 23-year-old son of a late smoker, an award which it is opposing.
"The evidence presented in this case does not support the verdict against us," Seth Moskowitz, an R.J. Reynolds spokesman, said. He said the ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed two years ago by two sons of a late Puerto Rican man who smoked.
The jury had initially ordered Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based R.J. Reynolds to pay $500,000 to each of the sons, but a judge overturned the portion accorded to the other son, aged 30.
"The judge determined that there were statutes of limitations," Moskowitz told Reuters. He said the company has asked the judge to overturn the remaining order, failing which it would lodge an appeal. . . Moskowitz claimed that an autopsy had not been conducted on the father.