2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY - Examining Boards and Professional Colleges (§§ 1 — 6033) › Chapter 23 - Board of Examiners of Chemists (§§ 461 — 471v) › § 471a - Definitions

For purposes of §§ 471—471v of this title, the following terms shall have the meanings stated hereinbelow, except when its context clearly indicates otherwise:
(a) Chemistry. — The science that includes branches of organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, geochemistry, environmental chemistry, and other specializations, and that deals with:
(1) Chemical elements, their compounds and their structures.
(2) The chemical reactions of the elements and compounds, and the laws that govern these reactions.
(3) The energy changes that occur during the chemical reactions, and the laws that govern them.
(4) The determinations, predictions, control, interpretation and evaluation by direct and indirect analytical methods with regard to the above.
(b) Chemist. — Means any professional who, through schooling, has obtained a university degree equivalent to a bachelor’s, master’s or doctor’s degree with a major in chemistry from a university, college or study center duly recognized and accredited by the Council on Higher Education of Puerto Rico, and who develops, applies or communicates the fundamentals of chemistry and practices independent judgment and discretion when conceiving, planning, coordinating or executing chemistry projects, and who has also obtained a license to practice the profession of chemist granted by the Chemists’ Examining Board of Puerto Rico. The duties of licensed chemists shall be, among others:
(1) To carry out chemical analysis or synthesis with or without need of direct supervision.
(2) To establish methods of analysis and/or synthesis and adapt them to new and specific needs.
(3) To carry out theoretical or practical investigations in any field of chemistry.
(4) To supervise the personnel that carr[y] out tests for quality control or for other purposes.
(5) To administer and/or supervise laboratories or enterprises engaged in making chemical analysis, or synthesis for quality control, investigation and/or the certification of finished products for public use and consumption, and other purposes.
(6) To serve as consultant on matters closely related to chemistry.
(7) To serve as an expert witness in courts of law in cases that involve litigation related to chemistry.
(c) Board. — The Chemists Examining Board of Puerto Rico.
(d) License. — A document authorized by the Board which certifies that the person in whose name it was issued has been registered as a chemist in its registry of licenses.
(e) Practice of chemistry. — The rendering of any professional service or application of specialized knowledge encompassed in the definition of chemistry found in subsection (a) of this section.
(f) Licensing examination. — One of the requirements for a chemist’s license in Puerto Rico that measures the level of cognitive competence, aptitude and skills to practice the profession [of] chemist in Puerto Rico.
(g) Report [on] results or Certificate of analysis.—Every final document which synthesizes the result of the analysis or analyses, essay(s), or of a study that has been directly performed by a licensed chemist or by the personnel under his/her supervision. The same shall be valid once the stamp of the College of Chemists of Puerto Rico is attached to the document and it is canceled by the seal and signature of the chemist, as provided by §§ 471q and 471s of this title.
History —June 4, 1983, No. 97, p. 257, § 2; July 6, 1985, No. 72, p. 249; Sept. 6, 1996, No. 194, § 1.