Municipalities will be asked to collaborate in enforcing the country’s new anti-tobacco law, said Denis Santiago Hernández, director of the Jalisco Commission for Protection Against Sanitary Risks (Corpisjal).
However, Hernández said his agency has 150 base employees, of whom only 80 are dispatched in the field to carry out surveillance operations and issue sanctions for transgressors of federal laws. Such a thin statewide workforce makes enforcing these laws an almost impossible task, he admitted.
Many mayors in Jalisco, including Pablo Lemus in Guadalajara and Alejandro Aguirre in Chapala, are reluctant to designate municipal employees to enforce the new General Law for Tobacco Control, which they say is the responsibility of federal authorities. The mayors are especially unenthusiastic about becoming involved in enforcing the ban on smoking in outdoor public spaces such as parks, plazas, stadiums and restaurants (even with designated areas), and places where the law states, somewhat ambiguously, there “may or may not be” children present.
Hernández is hopeful the mayors will come round, noting that at least 100 municipal governments in the state collaborated with the health authority to help enforce previous versions of the General Law for Tobacco Control.
Hernández said Cofepris (the federal health regulator) has issued notice to all its 32 state subsidiaries that surveillance—plus multas (fines)—for tobacco infractions in spaces classified as prohibited should start in early March.