Federal Aviation RegulationSec. 121.317 (i) states: "No person may tamper with, disable, or destroy any smoke detector installed in any airplane lavatory". If you fly a lot like I do, you hear this regulation all the time on US flights.
I don't know about you, but I've always found it odd they they have to enumerate 3 specific ways in which someone can mess around wtih the smoke alarm: "tamper with", "disable", or "distroy"... I'm sure we can thank the lawyers for this one! You can just imagine: originally the law was "No person may tamper with any smoke detector..." and some dude, having been brought before a judge, claims: "Well, your Honor, I did't 'tamper with' the smoke alarm, I disabled it!" Case is thrown out of court, dude walks free, and the regulation is updated. Then, some time afterward, another dude is brought before the judge for messing around with an airline smoke alarm: "Well, your Honor, I didn't 'tamper with or disable' the smoke alarm, I 'distroyed' it"... again, dude walks and the lawyers update the regulation. So you have to ask yourself (just out of technical curiosity of course), what's next? Are we done? How else could someone mess with the smoke alarm and not technically be tampering with, disabling, or destroying it? Perhaps "upgrading it" ?? "You see, you Honor, I wasn't tampering with, disabling, or destroying the smoke alarm, I was upgrading its software." lol
In case you're curious, I found the Federal Aviation Regulations regarding smoking:
