(Contingent expiration date – See note) 1.    Except as provided in subsection 7, a cigarette may not be sold or offered for sale in this state or offered for sale or sold to persons located in this state unless the cigarette has been tested in accordance with the test method and meets the performance standard specified in this section, a written certification has been filed by the manufacturer with the state fire marshal in accordance with section 18-13-03, and the cigarette has been marked in accordance with section 18-13-04.

a.    Testing of cigarettes must be conducted in accordance with the American society of testing and materials standard E2187-04, “standard test method for measuring the ignition strength of cigarettes”.

b.    Testing must be conducted on ten layers of filter paper.

c.    No more than twenty-five percent of the cigarettes tested in a test trial in accordance with this section may exhibit full-length burns. Forty replicate tests must comprise a complete test trial for each cigarette tested.

d.    The performance standard required by this section must be applied only to a complete test trial.

e.    Written certifications must be based upon testing conducted by a laboratory that has been accredited pursuant to standard ISO/IEC 17025 of the international organization for standardization, or other comparable accreditation standard required by the state fire marshal.

f.    A laboratory conducting testing in accordance with this section 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 may not be greater than nineteen hundredths.

g.    This section does not require additional testing if cigarettes are tested consistent with this chapter for any other purpose.

h.    Testing performed or sponsored by the state fire marshal to determine a cigarette’s compliance with the performance standard required must be conducted in accordance with this section.

2.    Each cigarette listed in a certification submitted pursuant to section 18-13-03 which uses lowered permeability bands in the cigarette paper to achieve compliance with the performance standard set forth in this section must have at least two nominally identical bands on the paper surrounding the tobacco column. At least one complete band must be located at least fifteen millimeters from the lighting end of the cigarette. For cigarettes on which the bands are positioned by design, at least two bands must be located at least fifteen millimeters from the lighting end and ten millimeters from the filter end of the tobacco column, or ten millimeters from the labeled end of the tobacco column for nonfiltered cigarettes.

3.    A manufacturer of a cigarette that the state fire marshal determines cannot be tested in accordance with the test method prescribed in subdivision a of subsection 1 shall propose a test method and performance standard for the cigarette to the state fire marshal. Upon approval of the proposed test method and a determination by the state fire marshal that the performance standard proposed by the manufacturer is equivalent to the performance standard prescribed in subdivision c of subsection 1, the manufacturer may employ the test method and performance standard to certify the cigarette pursuant to section 18-13-03. If the state fire marshal determines that another state has enacted reduced cigarette ignition propensity standards that include a test method and performance standard that are the same as those contained in this chapter, and the state fire marshal finds that the officials responsible for implementing those requirements have approved the proposed alternative test method and performance standard for a particular cigarette proposed by a manufacturer as meeting the fire safety standards of that state’s law or regulation under a legal provision comparable to this section, the state fire marshal shall authorize that manufacturer to employ the alternative test method and performance standard to certify that cigarette for sale in this state unless the state fire marshal demonstrates a reasonable basis why the alternative test should not be accepted under this chapter. All other applicable requirements of this section apply to the manufacturer.

4.    Each manufacturer shall maintain copies of the reports of all tests conducted on all cigarettes offered for sale for a period of three years, and shall make copies of these reports available to the state fire marshal and the insurance commissioner upon written request. Any manufacturer who fails to make copies of these reports available within sixty days of receiving a written request is subject to a civil penalty not to exceed ten thousand dollars for each day after the sixtieth day that the manufacturer does not make those copies available.

5.    The state fire marshal may adopt a subsequent American society of testing and materials standard test method for measuring the ignition strength of cigarettes upon a 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 American society of testing and materials standard E2187-04 and the performance standard in subdivision c of subsection 1.

    6.    The state fire marshal shall review the effectiveness of this section and report each interim to the legislative management the state fire marshal’s findings and any recommendation for legislation to improve the effectiveness of this chapter.

7.    The requirements of subsection 1 may not prohibit:

a.    Wholesale or retail dealers from selling their existing inventory of cigarettes after July 31, 2010, if the wholesale or retail dealers can establish that the inventory was purchased before August 1, 2010, in comparable quantity to the inventory purchased during the same period of the prior year; or

b.    The sale of cigarettes solely for the purpose of consumer testing. For purposes of this subsection, “consumer testing” means an assessment of cigarettes which is conducted by a manufacturer, or under the control and direction of a manufacturer, for the purpose of evaluating consumer acceptance of those cigarettes, utilizing only the quantity of cigarettes which is reasonably necessary for the assessment.

8.    This chapter must be interpreted and construed to effectuate its general purpose to make uniform this chapter with the laws of those states that have enacted reduced cigarette ignition propensity laws as of the date this chapter is enacted.