Re: Smoking in the cockpit/flightdeck.
This will really date me. Way back when I was an aircraft/helicopter mechanic in the US Coast Guard our pilots all smoked while flying. On many occasions, they complained that the vacuum driven instruments were not working right. They were described as either operating slowly in a turn or when there was a directional change.
The remedy for this problem was to clean the filters on the air inlet of each instrument. This was done using alcohol. Once the filters were cleaned, the instruments operated as they were designed to do. Granted, this doesn't apply to our glass cockpits/flight decks but smoking could cause other problems. The tars and other products in the smoke are plating themselves out on just about everything on the instrument panel and the overhead switch panels. It is getting into everything inside the panel and inside the switch panels. This viscous sticky goo can possibly enter switches and other electrical equipment causing an alteration of the items electrical properties.
Prior to the US airlines under FAA control eliminating smoking, the mechanics were constantly having to clean the cabin pressure regulator valves because they became coated with cigarette byproducts and quite often got stuck. Outside of the aircraft you could see a dark line just behind the pop-off-valve. This too resulted in a maintenance action.
Once the aircraft were purged of the smoke byproducts it opened up a new problem. The tars and other smoke products actually helped seal the cabin doors and with out the sticky mess the door seals were found to be leaking.
The problem of vacuum driven instruments still holds true for smaller aircraft. So the problem goes on.
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The Cat