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As a former director of engineering of a defense-products company, I’m very aware of the explosive nature of sodium azide. I know that there have been serious explosions in industries (including the airbag industry) that use metal azides. A few reasons sodium azide may have been selected for use in airbags are it releases gas fast, the gas it releases is pure nitrogen (of course, when sodium azide is mixed with other explosive or pyrotechnic ingredients, the resulting gas composition is altered), and it’s fairly stable when it’s inside an airbag system under most environmental conditions automobiles encounter.