Sec. 796.003. TESTING. (a) A manufacturer of cigarettes shall ensure that tests on cigarettes are conducted:

(1) in accordance with Standard Test Method for Measuring the Ignition Strength of Cigarettes, E2187-04, by the American Society of Testing and Materials, as that standard existed on January 1, 2007;

(2) on 10 layers of filter paper; and

(3) in a complete test trial of 40 replica tests.

(b) Not more than 25 percent of the cigarettes tested in a test trial in accordance with this section may exhibit full-length burns.

(c) The performance standard required by this section shall only be applied to a complete test trial.

(d) A written certification shall be based on testing conducted by a laboratory that has been accredited pursuant to standard ISO/IEC 17025 of the International Organization for Standardization, or another comparable accreditation standard required by the state fire marshal.

(e) A laboratory testing in accordance with this section shall implement a quality control and quality assurance program to ensure that operator bias, systematic and nonsystematic methodological errors, and equipment-related problems do not affect the results of the testing. The program must include a procedure to determine the repeatability of the testing results. The repeatability value may not be greater than 0.19. For purposes of this subsection, "repeatability value" means the range of values within which the repeat results of cigarette test trials from a single laboratory will fall 95 percent of the time.

(f) The state fire marshal may adopt a subsequent ASTM Standard Test Method for Measuring the Ignition Strength of Cigarettes on 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 the same cigarette would exhibit when tested in accordance with ASTM Standard E2187-04 and the performance standard in Subsection (b).

(g) A cigarette submitted for testing that uses lowered permeability bands in the cigarette paper to comply with the performance standard under this section must have at least two nominally identical bands on the paper surrounding the tobacco column and at least one complete band not less than 15 millimeters from the lighting end of the cigarette. A cigarette on which the bands are positioned by design must have at least two bands located not less than 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 nonfiltered cigarettes.

(h) This section does not require additional testing if a cigarette is tested in a manner that is consistent with this chapter for any other purpose.

(i) Testing performed or sponsored by the state fire marshal to determine a cigarette's compliance with the performance standard required under this section shall be conducted in accordance with this section.

Added by Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 909 (H.B. 2935), Sec. 1, eff. January 1, 2009.