Alcohol and pregnancy warning sign

This is the Act behind the little sign you may have seen by the register or in a bar’s bathroom. It serves two different readers. If you run a business where alcohol is sold or consumed, it tells you exactly what you are required to display, where, who gives you the sign free and what happens if you do not: a thirty-day notice and then fifty dollars a day. If you are a customer, it tells you what that sign should say — including the fact the Act orders highlighted, that the harm can occur in the first three to eight weeks, when many women still do not know they are pregnant — and that the sign must carry a guidance telephone number.

The duty reaches “every business that dispenses, sells or where alcoholic beverages are consumed.” Note the third category: not only those that sell, but also those where it is consumed, which brings in the bar-restaurant and the cafeteria even if it is not a liquor store. Article 3 adds a specific, separate duty for restaurants or cafeterias that give the customer a menu listing drinks. The Act exempts no small business and sets no minimum sales volume.

• Be a business that dispenses, sells or where alcoholic beverages are consumed (Article 1).Verified against the official source
• Display the signs in visibly prominent locations, per the list in Article 2 (Articles 1 and 2).Verified against the official source
• If you are a restaurant or cafeteria with a menu listing drinks, include the declaratory warning line in that space (Article 3).Verified against the official source

• The sign the Mental Health and Anti-Addiction Services Administration prepares and makes available, with the information the Department of Health provides (Article 4).

1. 1

   Step 1: Which businesses it reaches

   Article 1 says it in a single sentence: “every business that dispenses, sells or where alcoholic beverages are consumed.” Those are three cases and the third is the one most people overlook: it is enough that alcohol be consumed on the premises. A restaurant with a wine list, a cafeteria that serves beer and a bar fall in just as the corner shop selling bottles does.

2. 2

   Step 2: Where they must be placed

   Article 2 defines “visible locations” with an open list: the entrance of the business, the cash register, the shelves where the drink is displayed to the consumer, the service area and the ladies’ bathroom, and walls and spaces free of other advertising that would prevent the signs being seen, among others. The list closes with “among others,” so it is not exhaustive; what the Act requires is that they be in visibly prominent places and not covered by other advertising.

3. 3

   Step 3: The menu line, which is a separate duty

   Article 3 does not repeat the sign requirement: it adds another. In restaurants or cafeterias where the customer is given a menu listing drinks, the merchant shall be obliged to include in that space a declaratory line warning of the harmful effect of ingesting alcohol on the baby and the possibility of acquiring Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. If you have a drinks list, the sign on the wall does not relieve you of the line on the menu.

4. 4

   Step 4: Who gives you the sign and what it must say

   You do not have to draft it. Article 4 puts the information in the hands of the Department of Health in collaboration with the Mental Health and Anti-Addiction Services Administration, and gives the latter responsibility for preparing the sign and making it available. The content the Act orders contemplated, without this being understood as a restriction: that the effect of alcohol on the foetus can occur in the first three to eight weeks of pregnancy, when many women still do not know they are pregnant; that consumption can cause premature births, low birth weight babies, birth defects and even Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and its associated disorders, among them mental retardation, hyperactivity and attention deficit, facial defects, muscular and skeletal problems, deformations, microcephaly, hearing problems, learning problems and eating disorders. And something worth looking for if you are a customer: the notice must include a telephone number to request guidance or help, administered by that administration through its existing guidance systems.

5. 5

   Step 5: What happens if you do not display it

   Article 5 splits enforcement between two agencies. The Department of Health and the Alcoholic Beverages Bureau of the Department of the Treasury are empowered to intervene, sanction and fine any business that does not display the signs in a visibly prominent place. The sequence matters: Health has the power to issue an initial notice or warning to the merchant for non-compliance, granting thirty days to place them. The Bureau, for its part, may issue a fifty dollar daily fine on a merchant who, after receiving that first warning, still disregards the mandate. That is: the fine is daily and starts running after the warning, not before.

6. 6

   Step 6: Where the fine money goes

   The Act earmarks it rather than leaving it loose. Income from fines imposed on merchants shall be directed to prevention and guidance efforts on the effect of alcohol consumption on the woman and the foetus, and shall be held by the Mental Health and Anti-Addiction Services Administration, which shall also take the steps and adopt the regulations necessary for faithful compliance with the Act.

The sign is prepared and made available by the Mental Health and Anti-Addiction Services Administration, with the information the Department of Health provides. Enforcement rests with the Department of Health, which issues the initial thirty-day warning, and the Alcoholic Beverages Bureau of the Department of the Treasury, which imposes the daily fine. The Act creates no application window and no registry of compliant businesses.

• Believing it binds only liquor stores: it reaches every business where alcohol is consumed, not only those that sell it.
• Putting up one sign and calling it done: Article 2 names the entrance, register, shelves, service area and ladies’ bathroom, among others.
• Thinking the sign replaces the menu line: Article 3 is a separate duty for restaurants and cafeterias with a drinks list.
• Drafting the sign yourself: the Mental Health and Anti-Addiction Services Administration is the one that prepares it and makes it available.
• Believing the fine starts immediately: first comes Health’s notice with thirty days to place them.
• Underestimating the fine: it is fifty dollars a day, and the Act sets no ceiling on the accumulation.
• Covering the sign with other advertising: Article 2 requires walls and spaces free of advertising that would prevent it being seen.
• Expecting to complain as a customer: the Act creates no citizen complaint; Health and the Alcoholic Beverages Bureau enforce.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Administración de Servicios de Salud Mental y Contra la Adicción (ASSMCA)

  ASSMCA

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov