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Business Taxes Law Guide—Revision 2024

California Cigarette Fire Safety and Firefighter Protection Act

Health and Safety Code

Division 12. Fires and Fire Protection
Part 8. Cigarettes


14952. Test method, performance standard, and test data. (a) (1) Testing of cigarettes shall be conducted in accordance with the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) Standard E2187–04, "Standard Test Method for Measuring the Ignition Strength of Cigarettes." However, a subsequent ASTM Standard Test Method may be adopted upon finding that the subsequent method does not result in a change in the percentage of full-length burns exhibited by any tested cigarette when compared to the percentage of full-length burns that the same cigarette would exhibit when tested in accordance with ASTM Standard E2187–04 and the testing requirements in paragraphs (2) to (5), inclusive, and the performance standard specified in subdivision (b).

(2) Testing shall be conducted on 10 layers of filter paper.

(3) Forty replicate tests shall comprise a complete test trial for each cigarette tested.

(4) The performance standard required by subdivision (b) shall only be applied to a complete test trial.

(5) Laboratories conducting testing in accordance with this subdivision shall implement a quality control and quality assurance program that includes a procedure that will determine the repeatability of the testing results. The repeatability value shall be no greater than 0.19 pursuant to subdivision (b).

(b) When tested in accordance with subdivision (a), no more than 25 percent of the cigarettes tested in a test trial shall exhibit full-length burns.

(c) Each cigarette listed in a certification submitted pursuant to Section 14953 that uses lowered permeability bands in the cigarette paper to achieve compliance with the performance standard set forth in subdivision (b) shall have at least two nominally identical bands on the paper surrounding the tobacco column. At least one complete band shall be located at least 15 millimeters from the lighting end of the cigarette. For cigarettes on which the bands are positioned by design, there shall be at least two bands fully located at least 15 millimeters from the lighting end and 10 millimeters from the filter end of the tobacco column or 10 millimeters from the labeled end of the tobacco column for a nonfiltered cigarette.

(d) A manufacturer or manufacturers of a cigarette that cannot be tested in accordance with the test method prescribed in subdivision (a) may employ a test method and performance standard for that cigarette that is equivalent to the performance standard prescribed in subdivision (b). The manufacturer or manufacturers may employ that test method and performance standard to certify that cigarette pursuant to Section 14953. All other applicable requirements of this part shall apply to the manufacturer or manufacturers of that cigarette.

(e) This section does not require additional testing if cigarettes are tested consistent with this section for any other purpose.

(f) In order to ensure compliance with the performance standard specified in subdivision (b), data from testing conducted by manufacturers to comply with this performance standard shall be kept on file by these manufacturers for a period of three years after the initial date of certification and for a period of three years after each recertification required by subdivision (c) of Section 14953 and shall be sent to the Attorney General upon the Attorney General's request.

(g) This section shall be implemented in accordance with the implementation and substance of the New York Fire Safety Standards for Cigarettes that are effective on June 28, 2004.

History—Stats. 2022, Ch. 154 (SB 1742), in effect January 1, 2023, substituted "A" for "The" before "manufacturer or manufacturers" in the first sentence of subdivision (d); deleted "State Fire Marshal and the" after "shall be sent to the" and substituted "the Attorney General’s" for "his or her" after "Attorney General upon" in subdivision (f).