Airbags and Sodium Azide

[puppychop3]

This topic came up on another forum I visit and I was just wondering if Toyota uses this in their airbags or not. (Is it an urban myth, do all vehicles use it, has it been banned??). I also found the following on a quick search of the internet (dont know if its B.S. or not). Does anybody have any input on this?

Airbag Hazards
From: David T. Killough
Category: Voice your complaint
Date: 26 Jul 1999
Time: 14:45:34
Remote Name: 208.253.184.54
Remote User:


Comments
From: <davidk@cbsenvironmental.com> Subject: Airbags contain rat poison and shock sensitive explosive

Poisonous Airbags

Passive restraint bags (PRB) are suddenly and violently activated by nitrogen gas discharged at or near super-sonic speed from a highly explosive and toxic shock sensitive chemical, the primary detonant/rat poison, sodium azide (NaN3).

The active ingredient in the PRB, sodium azide, is most commonly used as a rodenticide fumigant (airborne rat poison). This poisonous chemical is an especially effective killer because it enters the body not only though the lungs, but also is directly absorbed through the intact skin. Release of sodium azide into the enclosed interior of a vehicle is an ideal fumigation scenario, from a pesticide applicator's standpoint.

The discharged nitrogen from the PRB is contaminated with a mixture of deadly toxic and corrosive particulate and gaseous chemicals. Much of the sodium azide rat poison remains unreacted, just as the powder from bullets is incompletely burned. No filter or gas absorbing mechanism known to science can effectively remove these contaminants from a gas moving at or near super-sonic speed.

Effects of Sodium Azide Poisoning

Because of the severe physical injuries sustained in a PRB deployment related accident, emergency responders and physicians can easily overlook symptoms of sodium azide poisoning.

Initially, the brain and nerves are poisoned, resulting in dizziness, disorientation, slurred speech, and loss of consciousness.

Sodium oxide dust and smoke, a sodium azide decomposition product, becomes caustic soda (lye) when mixed with moisture in the eyes, capable of causing permanent eye damage and blindness.

Azides are hepatotoxic (liver poisons) and haemotoxic (blood cell poisons) with the potential to cause life-threatening, irreversibe liver damage, severe blood dyscrasias, and dangerously low blood pressure for those who may survive the initial acute effects.

Intermediate term effects (12-24 hours) include metabolysis of absorbed azide in the bloodstream to yield cyanide, another reason for its effectiveness as a rat poison.

There are also potential chronic, or long-term (months-years), effects: azides are suspect cancer causing agents. Sodium azide is also implicated as a mutagen and teratogen, capable of causing genetic defects and deformities to unborn children. The ultimate results will not be known for many years.

The sudden blast from restraint bag deployment is a sonic boom, capable of inducing immediate and permanent hearing loss and constant ringing in the ears, called tinnitus.

The gas produced upon bag inflation IS NOT AIR, but mostly hot nitrogen, an inert asphyxiant that is advertized as "non-toxic", but DOES NOT SUPPORT LIFE. Normal nitrogen concentration in air is about 78% by volume. Oxygen is about 21%, and argon, about 1%. When the nitrogen concentration increases to 86% or higher, the oxygen inside the car is diluted to less than the Federal OSHA confined space safety standard of 13%. At or below a level of 13% oxygen in the air, persons in confined spaces, such as an automobile with closed windows, can become dizzy or even lose consciousness, a condition called hypoxia.

The dizziness from hypoxia can potentially compound an accident. Sodium azide, a documented nerve and brain poison, can greatly increase the dizziness from the accompanying nitrogen asphyxiation. This increased effect maximizes the likelihood that a driver will completely and unrecoverably lose control of the vehicle. There will be virtually no chance of avoiding secondary collisions with other vehicles and objects in the accident zone.

Given the above facts, the term "air bag" or "airbag" as used in advertizing to indicate detonant-decomposition gas-deployed passive restraint bags (PRB) is false, misleading, and dangerous to consumers. Such misleading information is at least a violation of Federal Trade Commission Rules. Also, the use of the rat poison, sodium azide, must comply with Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), administered by EPA.

Wrecked automobiles containing undeployed air bags are considered to be reactive (potentially explosive) characteristic hazardous waste under Federal RCRA rules and most State hazardous waste programs, a growing environmental problem.

Furthermore, sodium azide acts similarly to percussion caps for bullets, and can be used as a blasting cap, or high explosives initiator, by terrorists and subversives.

Reference: See Scientific American, "Air Bags Analysis," June 1996. http://www.sciam.com/0696issue/0696working.html

David T. Killough CIH CSP CHMM Manager, Environmental Health & Safety CBS Environmental, Inc. 6776 Southwest Freeway Suite 330 Houston, TX 77074 TEL: 713-780-2227 FAX: 713-780-2248


[archabpost/_private/airbags_aftr.htm]

[shelbix2020]

thats all if the bags rip tho? ... if it is true ... which I dont know
How tough are the bags? I would imagine theyre pretty strong

kinda scary, airbags can save your life ... in a car accident that is lol afterwards, good luck!

[pistolpete]

I am a chemist by trade and the sodium azide once "detonated" by electical charge "combusts" or decomposes into nitrogen and sodium hydroxide....nitrogen is in the air we breath and any type of caustic (sodium hydroxide is one type) is used in many cleaning solutions....yes if placed directly in the eye at high concentrations will cause irritation but nothing that a little water wash can't cure and like mentioned before the 'explosion' is contained in the bag in order for it to inflate the bag...the quatitites we are talking about are milligrams to inflate the bag......as with any substance they are all dangerous in sufficient quantity...ever check the MSDS (material safety data sheet) for water which lists its hazards??? you'd think you are handling a toxic substance!

Quell you fears there is NO impending danger

[Tundranized]

Yes, sodium azide is very dangerous and explosive. The TRW plant out here in Mesa, AZ manufactures a lot of the airbags in cars and every once in a while they would have a "small" explosion. A guy I work with actually went in the plant to do repair work and he says that the walls are built to take one hell of a blast.


Brian

[DevinSixtySeven]

@Q$#%#!$%!!!!! AAAAAAAGH!!!! CALL THE STATE DEPARTMENT! THERE"S A BOMB IN YOUR CAR!!!!11!!!!11one!

......

anyway, i noticed scientific american removed the article from their website, that link is now dead.

i also couldnt help but notice that the article was written in a rather sensationalist manner, which prompted my initial response above...or at least, that oprah fan response seemed like the intended effect of the article, referencing how explosives might be used by TERRORISTS and SUBVERSIVES (oh no! whoda thunk?).

i wouldnt doubt it's still used, widely used, and from the tone of that article, i'd like to see the justification (my guess is the justification is pretty decent, or it wouldnt be used considering the potential hazards)...i suspect that while the substances in question do have the exact effects the author states, their containment within the airbag system reduces the chances of exposure--and you have to assume that means when used in an accident that involves sharp objects flying around the passenger compartment but not necessarily a window breaking. i'd like to see the opposite perspective..."HAZARDOUS CHEMICALS when contained properly can be SAFE when near HUMANS!"

what were some of the responses to that posting? like i said, i dont doubt the validity of the author's statements regarding the dangers of decreased oxygen levels or sodium azide, but i am skeptical of the danger he alleges.

-sean

*edit* hang on, i'm reading some stuff i googled...all is not as it seems, either from what i posted or what the original author of that essay posted...

[DevinSixtySeven]

http://www.chemistry.wustl.edu/~edud...s/airbags.html

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/airbag.htm

http://www.indiacar.com/index2.asp?p...k/air_bags.htm

http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_quest...B7809EC588F2D7

http://www.airbagonoff.com/airbag%20safety.htm (follow their links, btw)

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/framed...ag/inflate.htm

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/framed...es/airbag.html

http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~ch...nual/expt2.htm

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc.../chem99201.htm

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl...57/ai_62195131

there are plenty more, i googled for "sodium azide airbag air bag". the primary danger seems to be from unactivated airbags as the bolded article indicates, as the detonation byproducts are filtered. in other words, youre in less danger if the airbag activates (though the risk of tinnitus is still present), and youre in more potential danger if you start poking at an armed detonator.

one of the q/a urls mentioned experimentation with argon gas, but then it's not the gas that's a potential problem, it's the compounds used to produce the gas.

short version: we need to stop using sodium azide as a propellant, not because it's a danger when an airbag pops, but because it's a danger when a car is totaled WITHOUT the airbag going off, and the detonator is not removed and contained.

the dangers from an activating (not activated) airbag are plenty ...i'm hoping i never trigger mine, but i'm not going to worry about it until it comes time to retire my truck WITHOUT activated airbags.

-sean

[LGL002]

Originally Posted by Tundranized

Yes, sodium azide is very dangerous and explosive. The TRW plant out here in Mesa, AZ manufactures a lot of the airbags in cars and every once in a while they would have a "small" explosion. A guy I work with actually went in the plant to do repair work and he says that the walls are built to take one hell of a blast.


Brian

I believe I'm correct that one or more of the materials that caused that huge huge explosion in Henderson Nevada some five or more years back was at a facility that composed the materials for air bags. That was destruction of biblical proportions. Whether true or not the auto makers were concerned that they'd have to slow or halt production lines because that facility was a major supplier. It was like the bunker buster bombs in magnitude.

Larry

[pistolpete]

I guess the opinion of a qualified and certified PhD chemist means nothing or my comments went in one ear and out the other!!!!....like anything....small doses of anything can be contained and rendered "harmless"....what do you think would happen it you take an innocent little firecracker and put a million of them together????? bigger bang for your buck...as one post said "an explosion of biblical proportions"?????? last time I checked the earth was still here and there hasn't been a "SECOND BIG BANG THEORY" .....likewise with sodium azide....it is in miniscule amounts that pose little danger to the public since it is contained in the airbag....and this crap about reducing available oxygen in the air.....uhhh hellooooooo what do you think our atmosphere is made of....it surely is not pure oxygen!!! that would make you go blind!!!! it is only 20% oxygen and 78% NITROGEN which is the gas created when sodium azide decomposes to inflate the airbag....please people educate yourself before starting these scare campaigns about chemicals....with proper handling, storage, and volume most chemicals are extremely safe.......

[DevinSixtySeven]

Originally Posted by pistolpete

...with proper handling, storage, and volume most chemicals are extremely safe.......

iono, maybe nobody read the dozen or so links i posted .

the two photos even showed the filters around the explosive charge...anyway like i said im not gonna fret until it comes time to retire the truck and the airbags are still intact, then theyll require tlc. it's not like an airbag going off throws rat poison around the passenger compartment or something, which is what the original article below seemed to suggest.

-sean

[LGL002]

I think most everyone understood my story about the facility in Henderson was a manufacturing facility and obviously had more than one detonator on hand, hence the size of the blast. But anyone that doesn't respect the personal hazard of lessor amounts of chemicals, explosives and the incompatibilty of some of them (say picric acid) could be in for a big surprise. Some of the safety procedures that you or I may take for granted are not common knowledge to a majority of the population. No, I don't have a Doctorate but I worked around a lot of nasty chemicals, materials and explosives during my working career and caution is not a hazard to most folks.

Larry

[Bbbutch]

From what I've heard while working with vehicles all my life is that the heat from the very hot gasses inside an activated airbag are far more dangerous. An airbag that is punctured in the wrong place (which doesn't happen all that often) and lets the hot gasses escape onto exposed skin will most definitely leave scars. I work with the guy who has them. But he is the only one I have ever seen that has had that happen and he still praises the airbag for saving his life.