New York State Law to Regulate Smoke Detectors

A new law out of Albany will mandate that smoke detectors must contain 10-year battery that are unremovable. Most people would agree that this is a good law, but others say "Why do we need another law?"

According to Syracuse.com, Governor Cuomo signed the proposed bill into law on Monday.

When the new law takes effect in New York in 2017 the state will prohibit the sale of any detector that requires traditional replaceable batteries. The rule is intended to reduce tampering and ensure detectors continue to work even if a homeowner or business owner forgot to change the batteries.

This law understandably looks to reduce death and injury from house fires, but is this law really enforceable? You can prohibit the sale of certain smoke-detectors, but that will not force people to buy them. Many people have existing smoke detectors that use traditional batteries. It's unlikely that people will throw out the old to buy the new. When so many other issues face our state, it seems that time and resources should be used on more important things. Do you agree?