2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-FOUR - Health and Sanitation (§§ 1 — 15010) › PART III - Food, Drugs, and Cosmetics (§§ 711 — 1031d) › Chapter 62 - Smoking Regulations in Public and Private Areas (§§ 891 — 899) › § 891 - Definitions

For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings stated below:
(a) Smoking.— Means the activity of inhaling and exhaling smoke from tobacco and other substances that are lit in cigars, cigarettes, and pipes, and to possess or transport cigars, cigarettes, pipes, and smoking articles while lit and it shall also include the use of the so-called electronic cigarette. For purposes of this chapter, electronic cigarette is defined as any product designed to provide the user with a dose of nicotine combined with other substances in the form of vapor, as established by the Food and Drug Administration of the United States.
(b) Smoking area.— Place, room or area designated for smokers.
(c) Public building.— Means and includes those structures that house offices, dependencies or facilities of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, including municipalities, public corporations and instrumentalities and the courts of justice of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(d) Schoolrooms.— Means infant and preschool child care centers and those public and private classrooms from kindergarten to twelfth grade, or any of said grades, as well as schools, colleges and institutions for vocational, technical and high-skill training, and institutions of higher learning, including the libraries of said centers, as well as any other teaching institution.
(e) Hospital.— Means a public or private hospital operated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(f) Directing authority.— Means any secretary of a department, executive director of a public instrumentality, president of a public corporation or chief executive officer of a specific department, corporation, agency or instrumentality of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as any mayor, director, president, executive director or chief executive of any agency, corporation or instrumentality belonging to any municipality of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as the president, owner, administrator, or the chief executive of any private corporation or firm affected by this chapter who exercises control or has the highest decision-making power over the administrative and operational phases of the facilities mentioned in this chapter.
(g) Theaters and movie houses.— Means and includes the establishments to which the public in general goes to see theatrical productions, cinematographic movies, conferences, concerts or any other type of spectacle or activity that is shown on a stage or the screen, but does not include entertainment halls or other places in which this type of activity is presented and in which food and drink is also dispensed.
(h) Public elevators.— Means and includes the mechanical apparatus that is used in public, commercial or professional buildings, and in hotels, to move the general public between floors, and those mechanical apparatus used to move the residents and visitors of housing between floors, including those mechanical apparatus that are used exclusively, wherever they are located, for the moving of cargo, delivery of merchandise and cleaning purposes.
(i) Public transportation vehicles.— Means and includes all Metropolitan Bus Authority busses, those busses belonging to private or public persons or entities that render transportation services to the public in general for pay in any part of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, school busses, including any motor vehicle regardless of its capacity, engaged in the transportation of persons for pay, which transportation is done between fixed or irregular terminals or not, and ferries operated by the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(j) Restaurants, cafeterias, coffee shops, establishments where food is sold.— Means a business devoted to the sale of food to be consumed in enclosed premises, including those that offer their facilities for celebrating children’s birthday parties and other children’s activities.
(k) Fast food establishments.— Those establishments that sell, serve and instantly dispense prepared foods from a limited menu, in enclosed places.
(l) Gasoline retail sale service stations.— Means and includes those places of business where any natural or juridical person sells gasoline and/or fuels of any type for motor vehicles, and that the same are furnished through the deposit thereof in the tanks of said motor vehicles or in authorized containers. It includes the areas destined to supply fuel to motor vehicles, dispatch flammable antifreeze, receive products delivered by trucks, tanks or those parts of the building destined to service automobiles, trucks, tractors or internal combustion motors.
(m) Public or private recreational installations.— Means every park, court, pool, video or pinball machine rooms, stadiums, coliseums, areas or places designated or commonly used to hold activities such as games, entertainment, passive enjoyment or recreation; professional or amateur sports competitions, or events.
(n) Health services centers, child care centers, mental health centers and institutions for the elderly.— Means all those public or private institutions, as well as private residences with licenses issued by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, devoted to providing health and child care services and services for the elderly, or facilities used to provide health care during the time they are being operated or when employees are at work there.
(o) Bars, pubs, discotheques, and liquor stores.— Businesses devoted to the sale of alcoholic beverages or liquor and the sale of food to be consumed in enclosed premises, regardless of any other activities conducted in said premises, places or businesses.
(p) Convention centers.— Property used by persons or entities for the following purposes and events: congresses, conventions, conferences, product fairs, exhibits, meetings and other business and entertainment events and public, social, cultural, historic and scientific meetings. The term convention center shall include all facilities, furnishings, installations and equipment needed for or incidental to the same, including but not limited to meeting rooms, dining areas, kitchens, banquet halls, reception and registration areas, show rooms, truck cargo areas (including access to such areas), access areas, common areas, lobbies, offices, storage rooms, restaurants and other facilities for the sale of food, beverages, publications, souvenirs, novelties, office supplies and other convenience items, as well as those areas and facilities related thereto.
(q) Shopping centers and businesses.— Private commercial properties with parking areas, cargo and delivery service areas where a group of commercial establishments or offices are located devoted to the sale of merchandise, foodstuffs, products, goods, valuables, services and entertainment frequented by a high volume of visitors, consumers, suppliers, employers and tenants.
(r) Work setting.— Any interior, exterior or underground premise and the rural or urban land belonging to the latter, including any common multiple housing areas, residential buildings or other structures where any industry, trade, service or business is temporarily or permanently conducted or any process or operation directly or indirectly related to any industry, trade, service or business is carried out and where any person derives any direct or indirect earnings or benefit, but not to include the lots of private residences or dwellings where persons are employed in domestic service, nor to include those places where the work is done solely by the owner or tenant of the property without the help of employees.
(s) Residence.— Private place where a person has an [expectation] of privacy.
History —Aug. 3, 1993, No. 40, § 2; Aug. 13, 1996, No. 133, § 1; Jan. 6, 1998, No. 11, § 1; Aug. 21, 1999, No. 287, § 1; Mar. 2, 2006, No. 66, § 1; Apr. 11, 2011, No. 59, § 1.