Ethical Automobile Airbags - Sodium Azide. Carcinogen, Mutagen, Toxin saving lives at EOL

 Work up this morning wondering where automobile airbags wind up when used cars are sold for reuse in Africa. 

The automobile airbag, mandated after valiant effort to protect consumers by Ralph Nader's organization in the 1970s, is a wonderful invention.  Here's a video of one deploying.

Cool huh? But after your life is saved in the crash, what happens to the airbag? 

How it works (at least in older models of cars, most often exported to Africa) is that a highly toxic, known mutagen, suspected carcinogen, CDC advisory toxic chemical SODIUM AZIDE is triggered by an electrical charge.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Peugeot_306_airbags_deployed.jpg

There is some regulatory knowledge among USA automobile shredder recyclers. But what happens to the airbags when a used car is sold to Africa?

Ammonium Nitrate is another example, a type of airbag subject to millions of recalls - from registered Western dealerships. 

I'm not saying I know anything about it. I just find it interesting that for all of the alarming narratives about risks of reselling used cellphones, laptops, TVs and computers to Africa, why no one talks about cars, or airbags.

The useful life of electronics is years. The useful life of an airbag is microseconds.

I'm sure there are university researchers studying this.  I just think it's an interesting ethical question, whether used cars sold to Africans should have the airbags removed, allowing Africans to die in accidents, but preserving the soil and longterm health in places like Agbogbloshie.

Should Europeans and Americans weigh in and make that decision on Africa's behalf?  

This Great White Savior Complex is trickier than we thought.

New York State Department of Environmental Correction has weighed in. Airbags become "waste airbags" when they are removed from a vehicle. So, you cannot resell them on the used parts market to an African buyer. I'm not saying that is wrong, and DEC is certainly correct that they should be removed before a car is shredded where sodium azide would be released all over the environment.

This 2016 accidental explosion of a shipment of Takata Airbags in Texas illustrates another risk. Dynamite comes in small packages.

So we mandate airbags be put in rich peoples new cars. But we don't let repairmen put unused, aftermarket air bags in used cars. Because we need to protect the environment for the rich people, and protect them from a sense of liability.

But by that logic, should air bags be removed from used cars which Africans buy for reuse export? And what does that say about our priorites?  Shades of "Project Eden"? What does that say about the environmental risks we spend protecting wealthy people, versus our concern for the lives of poor people driving without airbags?

What's clear is that the press is arbitrarily being dished narrative concerns based on planned obsolescence and interference in the secondary market, not on science or truly ethical regulation. A good discussion should involve Africa's Tech Sector, not just NGOs, liability fearing regulators, and OEMs.

Management of Waste Airbags

DEC has issued enforcement discretion on the regulation of vehicle airbags as described below. This will be in effect until rescinded or adopted into regulation. See DEC's Hazardous Waste Revisions Under Consideration webpage for more information about upcoming regulatory changes affecting the management of airbag waste in New York State.

Waste airbags are often considered hazardous waste because they display the hazardous characteristics of ignitability (D001) and/or reactivity (D003), however applicable regulatory requirements may vary depending upon the recall status and the management of the airbag waste. An Enforcement Discretion Letter (PDF) (949 KB) was approved on July 5, 2019 and addresses provisions of the recently revised Part 360 regulations.

Airbags become "waste airbags" when they are removed from a vehicle. "Airbag waste" includes airbag modules and airbag inflators removed from vehicles.

New York State law requires facilities to remove undeployed airbags from vehicles before the vehicles are crushed or shredded.

New York State prohibits the sale or reuse of waste airbags, per the Vehicle and Traffic Law (VAT) Title 4, Article 16, Section 415-c (link leave's DEC's website). This means that undeployed airbags that are removed from any vehicle are a hazardous waste and subject to the applicable hazardous waste regulations in New York State.