31. TRW's two Mesa factories have been plagued by fires, explosions, spills and environmental violations associated with sodium azide wastes. 32. Guided missiles must use high-performance motors ( e . g sodium azide cells ) to adjust their course midflight. 33. The Mesa plants continue to use sodium azide in air-bag productions, but at reduced levels due to technological improvements. 34. The offending chemical, used to activate airbags, was sodium azide _ a substance that sometimes is more explosive than nitroglycerine. 35. Some researchers contacted by The Arizona Republic have questioned whether bacteria and sunshine are capable of breaking down sodium azide . 36. For example, lead azide, used in detonators, may be prepared from the metathesis reaction between lead nitrate and sodium azide . 37. Sodium azide for example may be mutagenic ( and highly toxic ), but it has not been shown to be carcinogenic.38. Betterton recently applied for a National Science Foundation grant to determine if liquid sodium azide can be neutralized by bacteria and sunlight. 39. Both explosions occurred in a building where volatile sodium azide propellant is formed into wafers that are installed in passenger-side air bags. 40. Alkyl or aryl acyl chlorides react with sodium azide in aqueous solution to give acyl azides, which give isocyanates in the Curtius rearrangement.
