Transportation
3 min read
Profits Over Safety: Automakers Still Selling Vehicles with Defective Takata Airbags
At issue is Takata’s use of a compound called ammonium nitrate that acts like a propellant to create a small explosion that inflates the airbags in a crash. The chemical propellant is housed in a metal canister designed to contain the explosion. But, ammonium nitrate can deteriorate and become unstable over time or when it is exposed to moisture in high heat and humidity, causing the propellant to burn too fast; blow apart the metal canister; and send shrapnel into the necks and faces of vehicle occupants.