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New law aimed at smoke and carbon monoxide alarms

Big changes are coming to one very small, but extremely important home appliance.

SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - A newstate law aims to keep residents safer in the event of a house or apartmentfire.

The law went into effectin July and it requires all battery-powered smoke and carbon monoxide alarms tocontain non-replaceable and non-removable batteries.

The batteries last aminimum of 10 years.

"The weak link wasthe battery. The law has fixed this, the manufacturer has fixed this, thecommunity should be safer. There's no reason at all to ever take one of thesedown unless you need to replace it,” said San Diego Fire Marshal Doug Perry.

Homeowners with existingsmoke detectors that are functioning correctly do not have to replace them, butfire officials stress that the batteries should be changed every six months.

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