In Judith A. Jance’s mystery novel Partner in Crime (2002), the murder weapon is sodium azide, a chemical used in auto air bags. She got her story idea from a magazine article about how poisonous sodium azide is. The chemical is not deactivated when cars are sent to junkyards. Since this book was written, has anyone cared enough to address this problem in our environment? –Frances R., Morrisville, Vermont
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Judith Jance covers the basics of sodium azide (NaN3) in her book. It’s a white, odorless crystalline solid resembling salt. It’s highly poisonous, and when added to an acid, or just acidic water, turns into a toxic gas with a sharp odor. The chemical’s toxicity makes it useful as a pesticide and as an antibacterial preservative in hospitals and laboratories. Sodium azide reacts violently when it touches certain common metals, making cleanup in the lab pretty entertaining–if you pour it down a metal drainpipe, it explodes.
Daredevil as all this sounds, sodium azide is more dangerous when it’s not exploding in your face. The compound can kill when inhaled in powdered form, drunk as a contaminant in water, or absorbed through skin contact. There is no known treatment other than alleviating symptoms until the crisis passes, assuming it does. Effects depend on the route and amount of exposure, ranging from dizziness, headache, and vomiting to hypotension, convulsions, and respiratory failure.
More alarmingly, some have figured out sodium azide can be used as a weapon–an Arizona woman was convicted of using it in 2000 to poison her husband, and in 2003 Malaysian police said alleged terrorists were stockpiling it. Granted, in neither case was the stuff obtained from an auto junkyard, the scenario depicted in Jance’s book. But the fact is, the P-list and the occasional stern warning notwithstanding, nobody really monitors what happens to undischarged air bags once a car reaches the end of the road. Automakers such as Toyota are phasing out sodium azide, but there’s plenty still out there. While Jance’s mystery novel may have raised the anxiety level, my guess is getting the authorities off the dime will take a series of unfortunate events.
