WiseAsh wrote:
CHAPTER II ARTICLE 5. Sites prohibited to smoke
n) areas or establishments where prepared, processed, taste it or sell foods, such as restaurants, bars and cafes.
The Havana Humidor Room is not a prohibited area or business.
I certainly hope you are correct in your interpretation of the law. Clearly anyone who enters a cigar room is aware that one of the purposes of a cigar room is the smoking of cigars and therefore smoke will be present so they would seem to have voluntarily given up their right to complain.
That being said, there is an article in today’s
Inside Costa Rica that indicates there is a possibility that the law may be interpreted so broadly as to outlaw smoking in parking lots of restaurants and bars.
Quote:
Costa Rican Authorities To Get Tough On Smokers Starting This Week
Although the regulations and enforcements, nor where to pay the fines, is in place the Ministerio de Salud says it will start this week visiting bars and restaurants around the country to ensure compliance to the Ley de Antitabaco.
"From next week we will visit these places, the Minister also informed by the regional establishments must remove any sign that indicates smoking area" said Roberto Castro, Director of Surveillance of the Ministry of Health, to the press last week.
With the move the the smoking ban comes into its full rigor this week, and that all establishments are aware, if not met will take the necessary measures.
The sanctions against bars and restuarants, for example, can be a fine and include the suspension of the operating permit.
If a bar or restaurant loses their "permiso sanitario" it will then have to then initiate the complicated of getting it back.
Reports sent in to Inside Costa Rica indicate that the local municipal police in San José last week visited a number of bars and restaurants and issued warnings.
In many places smokers are being asked to go outside to feed their habit, some having to take to the sidewalks of the public streets as the debate centres on whether a parking lot is deemed part of the bar or restaurant.
In malls, like Multiplaza in Escazú, an ICR reader informs that he was asked by a security guard to snuff out while sitting his his vehicle, parked in the malls parking lot, while smoking. "Where am I to go, to the pista?", was the rhetorical question.
One of the requirements under the law is that establishments post anti-smoking signs.
Going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine
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