(a) The State Fire Marshal shall adopt regulations by January 1, 1994, that specify standards for the special design of cigarette lighters, using an 80 percent acceptance criterion with respect to safety features that prevent operation of the lighters by children five years of age or younger. The State Fire Marshal shall select a test protocol from those which have been submitted, on or before the effective date of this act, to the Consumer Products Safety Commission of the United States. If federal standards for the special design of cigarette lighters are adopted, the federal standard shall take precedence over a regulation adopted pursuant to this section, and the regulation shall have no force or effect.
(b) Each manufacturer shall provide for the testing of its products that are subject to this section, through laboratories approved by the State Fire Marshal, and shall bear the cost of product testing according to the approved plan and test protocol. The State Fire Marshal may collect fees from manufacturers to pay for the application and approval process in conjunction with administering this section. Fees collected pursuant to this section shall be deposited into the Cigarette Lighter Safety Account in the General Fund, which is hereby created. Moneys in that account shall be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for reimbursement of the State Fire Marshal’s costs in processing applications and approvals under this section. This section shall remain operative only if and when federal standards for the special design of cigarette lighters for the purpose stated in this section are not in effect.
(Added by Stats. 1991, Ch. 904, Sec. 1. Inoperative, by its own provisions, when federal standards are in effect.)