Ralph welcomes Jerry Cox, author of “Killer Air Bags: The Deadly Secret Automakers Don’t Want You to Know,” his insider account of how the Takata company made airbags that were essentially equipped with pipe bombs of ammonium nitrate. And the former executive director of Greenpeace, Peter Bahouth, comes on to rail against that noisy, polluting scourge of the suburbs: the leaf blower. Plus, Ralph answers your questions.
Jerry Cox is a long-time champion of airbag mandates, attorney, and transportation safety consultant. He is the author of Killer Airbags: The Deadly Secret Automakers Don’t Want You to Know.
“Most people think, ‘If I had a defective airbag and I had it replaced I’m good and I don’t have to worry about it again…’ They think they’re good to go and they’re not. Because all they got was an airbag inflator with a longer fuse on it– a pipe bomb with a longer fuse.”
Jerry Cox, author of Killer Airbags: The Deadly Secret Automakers Don’t Want You to Know
“The government’s supposed to do something to help you [protect yourself] but they’re not. Nobody’s doing anything to help you. So, what you need to do as a consumer is, number one, don’t wait for a paper recall notice to come to you. Recognize, when you hear this, check your own VIN. Do it on a regular basis. Convince people you love to do the same thing.”
Jerry Cox, author of Killer Airbags: The Deadly Secret Automakers Don’t Want You to Know
Peter Bahouth is an attorney, climate activist, artist, and former executive director of Greenpeace USA and the U.S. Climate Action Network. He recently wrote an op-ed in the Dallas Morning News on the health and environmental impacts of leaf blowers in residential neighborhoods.
“The people that are operating [leaf blowers], they’re gonna be losing their hearing and they’re going to have respiratory problems. But it takes some time… Gas-powered leaf blowers only burn about sixty to seventy percent of the fuel. The rest of it is atomized out into the air. So, you’ve got an engine on people’s back that would be illegal on the lake… illegal on the street… but you can use it in your backyard.”
Peter Bahouth, former Executive Director of Greenpeace
“We were promised jet packs, and what we got were leaf blowers.”
Peter Bahouth, former Executive Director of Greenpeace
“[Denver-based Civic Health Club Warm Cookies of the Revolution] is the kind of creativity that arises around the country that needs greater exposure by the media. So, thank you for that idea and I hope people will connect with [it] so they can cook up something similar in their neighborhood.”
Ralph Nader
Killer Air Bags