Puerto Rico health committee hears testimony to expand smoke-free perimeters around schools, hospitals and recreational sites

The House Committee on Health met Friday afternoon to consider two measures that would expand Puerto Rico tobacco-free buffer zones: House Bill 175, filed by the New Progressive Party spokesman Torres Zamora, and House Bill 201, filed by Representative Swanny Vargas Laureano. Both would amend Law 40 of 1993 (the island of Puerto Rico) to extend prohibitions on smoking around schools, healthcare facilities and recreational sites.

Why it matters: committee members and testimony emphasized protecting children, patients and other vulnerable populations from secondhand smoke and modern nicotine delivery devices. Agencies proposed a single, uniform perimeter to reduce enforcement confusion and recommended amending the bills to specify metric measurements and to identify funding and implementation steps.

Most significant testimony and recommendations

- Department of Education: Sara Ruiz Maisonet (director of public policy), speaking for the department, told the committee the proposals would extend protections to students and school visitors and endorsed the bills as "a step to protect our students and vulnerable populations." The department said the measures would complement school-based socioemotional prevention work and urged the committee to adopt them.

- Department of Health: Luis Reyes Burgos (identified in the record as an analyst in the Secretariat for Integral Health Services) summarized scientific and policy precedent, noting that jurisdictions in the U.S. have set exterior buffer distances ranging from 10 to 25 feet and that the U.S.…