Re: ATF regulations.

On Tue, 12 Oct 2004, Donald Qualls wrote:
> > find no mention of air bag actuators.  Mind you, I don't know what's 
> > *in* them...
> 
> Most airbag propellants are sodium azide, which itself is on the List 
> (or was, as of a couple years ago).

My understanding is that sodium azide *used to be* the usual airbag
propellant, but is no longer common in that role.  I don't know just
what they've replaced it with, though.

> This material is related to the 
> lead azide used in some brands of ammunition primers; it is a shock 
> sensitive primary explosive.

The (rather old) lab-safety reference I've got says that sodium azide is
not considered to present an explosion hazard under most conditions; it's
much more stable than the heavy-metal azides like lead azide.  The main
explosion risk from lab work with it is unintentional conversion to the
more dangerous azides. 

                                                          Henry Spencer
                                                       [email protected]