BILL NUMBER: AB 1520 CHAPTERED 10/10/99 CHAPTER 920 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE OCTOBER 10, 1999 APPROVED BY GOVERNOR OCTOBER 9, 1999 PASSED THE ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 9, 1999 PASSED THE SENATE SEPTEMBER 7, 1999 AMENDED IN SENATE SEPTEMBER 1, 1999 AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 30, 1999 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 19, 1999 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Members Leach, Cunneen, Robert Pacheco, and Zettel FEBRUARY 26, 1999 An act to add Chapter 4.8 (commencing with Section 24530) to Division 20 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to product safety. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 1520, Leach. Bunk beds. (1) Existing law regulates safety with respect to various consumer products, including infant cribs. This bill would prohibit any commercial user, as defined, from remanufacturing, retrofitting, selling, contracting to sell or resell, leasing, subletting, or otherwise placing in the stream of commerce in this state a bunk bed that is unsafe for any child user, except as specified. Because a violation of this prohibition would constitute an infraction, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. (2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Chapter 4.8 (commencing with Section 24530) is added to Division 20 of the Health and Safety Code, to read: CHAPTER 4.8. BUNK BEDS 24530. This chapter shall be known as and may be cited as the Bunk Bed Safety Act of 1999. 24531. The Legislature finds and declares the following: (a) No state or federal law exists mandating the safety of bunk beds intended for use by children. (b) Since November 1994, the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission has recalled more than 500,000 bunk beds that posed serious health hazards to children, including thousands manufactured in California. (c) At least 54 children have died from head entrapment in bunk beds since 1990. 24532. (a) As used in this chapter, "sale" or "sell" means remanufacturing, retrofitting, selling, contracting to sell or resell, leasing, subletting, or otherwise placing in the stream of commerce. (b) As used in this chapter, "commercial user" means any person who deals in or engages in the business of selling bunk beds or who otherwise by one's occupation holds oneself out as having knowledge or skill peculiar to bunk beds, or any person who sells bunk beds. 24533. (a) No commercial user shall sell, on or after January 1, 2000, a bunk bed that is unsafe for any child using the bunk bed. (b) A bunk bed is presumed to be unsafe for purposes of this section if it does not conform to the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) Voluntary Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Bunk Beds, F1427-96, with the following modifications: (1) Section 4.5.5 of the Performance Requirements pertaining to guardrails is deleted and replaced with the following: "4.5.5. Guardrails shall run the full length of the bed, connecting to both bed end structures." (2) Section 4.6.3 of the Performance Requirements pertaining to lower bunks is deleted and replaced with the following: "4.6.3. When tested in accordance with 5.6.2, there shall be no opening in the end structure of the lower bunk, from the level of the lower bunk mattress support system to the level of the upper bunk mattress support system, that will permit free passage of the wedge block shown in Figure 1, unless they are large enough to permit the free passage of a 9 inch (230 mm) diameter rigid sphere. This requirement does not apply to openings that are below the level of the lower bunk foundation support system." (3) A safe bunk bed shall comply with the neck entrapment safety standard specified in Section 1213.4(c)(3) of Title 16 of the Code of Federal Regulations as published in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register (Vol. 64, No. 131, July 9, 1999, at page 37057). 24534. On or after January 1, 2000, any commercial user who willfully and knowingly violates Section 24533 is guilty of an infraction and shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000). 24535. Any person may maintain an action against any commercial user who violates Section 24533 to enjoin the sale of a bunk bed that is unsafe for any child using the bunk bed, and for reasonable attorney's fees and costs. This section shall not apply to hotels, motels, or similar transient lodging until January 1, 2003. 24536. Remedies available under this article shall be in addition to any other remedies or procedures under any other provision of law that may be available to an aggrieved party. 24537. This chapter does not apply to any bunk bed that was manufactured prior to January 1, 2000, if the sale of the bunk bed is accompanied by a disclosure statement attached in a conspicuous place on the bunk bed that states the following: "This bunk bed does not conform to the Bunk Bed Safety Act of 1999. Exercise caution before you select this product." 24538. Nothing in this chapter shall supersede any provision of federal law or any regulation adopted pursuant to federal law. SEC. 2. If any provision of this act or the application thereof to any person or circumstances is held invalid or unconstitutional, that invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of this act that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this act are severable. SEC. 3. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution.