Industry Group Helped Get Recycled Airbags Banned

The Collision Industry Action Group reports that its meetings with Ottawa earlier this year have helped result in a ban on rebuilt airbags.
Earlier this year, the Collision Industry Action Group (CIAG), in a presentation in Ottawa at a Transport Canada facility, strongly recommended that the sale and installation of rebuilt air bags be made illegal.
The presentation was made to provincial and federal representative of the Project Group on Airbags, a committee of the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA), the senior interprovincial/federal body in Canada responsible for road safety issues.
Following the two-day long meeting, where members heard from industry stakeholders then developed recommendations, Committee chair Claude Corbeil of Quebec, summarized the proposals for presentation to the larger meeting of CCMTA in Halifax.
In May 2002, the CCMTA Board approved the recommendations that:
Rebuilt airbags be banned as follows:
–No person shall sell, offer for sale or have in their possession for sale or install a rebuilt airbag.
–No person shall build such an airbag.
–No person shall operate a motor vehicle equipped with a rebuilt airbag.
A rebuilt airbag refers to an airbag unit that has been deployed and is reconstructed.
Significant discussion also took place regarding recycled airbags and the CCMTA Board decided that recycled airbags be allowed, but only where sufficient, stringent controls are in place to ensure their safe and correct installation.
It is now up to the individual provinces to enact regulation that would meet the intent of the CCMTA recommendations. Already the province of Quebec has passed legislation to ban both rebuilt and recycled airbags, while others such as Manitoba and Ontario are considering enacting legislation to ban all but Original Equipment new airbags.
A number of stakeholders, including CIAG, believe that there are not enough controls in place to be satisfied that recycled airbags, assuming they are installed in the correct specific vehicle, will operate safely, particularly if there are no controls or evidence on whether the airbag may or may not have been water damaged.