(May 20, 2015) It's the largest auto recall in history, and may be the largest consumer recall — regardless of product — ever.  Japanese air bag manufacturer Takata Corp. is declaring 33.8 million vehicles have its defective airbags.

Under heavy government pressure, the determination will force 11 major automakers to double the recall of vehicles with air bag inflators linked to deadly explosions, from the 17 million recalled to date. Government officials say the campaign could take years to complete and be the single largest U.S. recall of any consumer product, surpassing the callback of 31 million bottles of Tylenol in 1982 amid a poison scare.

The massive air bag recall covers more than 13 percent of all cars and trucks on the roads in the U.S. today. It would easily surpass the largest automotive recall — 23 million vehicles by Ford Motor Co. in 1980 for a transmission issue that only required the addition of a warning sticker.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx today announced that at the Department’s insistence Takata agreed to a national recall of certain types of driver and passenger side air bag inflators. These inflators were made with a propellant that can degrade over time and has led to ruptures that have been blamed for six deaths worldwide.

Foxx also announced that the Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a Consent Order to Takata. The Consent Order requires the company to cooperate in all future regulatory actions that NHTSA undertakes in its ongoing investigation and oversight of Takata. In addition, NHTSA announced its intent to begin a formal legal process to organize and prioritize the replacement of defective Takata inflators under the agency’s legal authority.

“Today is a major step forward for public safety,” Foxx said. “The Department of Transportation is taking the proactive steps necessary to ensure that defective inflators are replaced with safe ones as quickly as possible, and that the highest risks are addressed first. We will not stop our work until every air bag is replaced.”

The actions expand regional recalls of Takata passenger-side inflators, currently limited to areas of high absolute humidity, to nationwide recalls involving more than 16 million vehicles. They also expand the current nationwide recall of driver-side inflators to more than 17 million vehicles. It’s anticipated that the remedy of vehicles will be prioritized based upon risk, with the vehicles that present the greatest risk in terms of age and geographic location to be serviced first.

“From the very beginning, our goal has been simple: a safe air bag in every vehicle,” said NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind. “The steps we’re taking today represent significant progress toward that goal. We all know that there is more work to do, for NHTSA, for the auto makers, for parts suppliers, and for consumers. But we are determined to get to our goal as rapidly as possible.”

The Department has established a new website, www.SaferCar.gov/RecallsSpotlight, to provide regular updates on the status of this and other recalls and of NHTSA’s investigation.

Testing and investigation by Takata, auto manufacturers, and independent researchers have not yet established a definitive root cause of the inflator malfunctions. NHTSA’s analysis of test results and engineering reports from independent organizations points to moisture infiltrating the defective inflators over extended periods of time as a factor.

Over time, that moisture causes changes in the structure of the chemical propellant that ignites when an air bag deploys. The degraded propellant ignites too quickly, producing excess pressure that causes the inflator to rupture and sends metal shards into the passenger cabin that can lead to serious injury or death.

Ten automakers previously had recalled 17 million cars and trucks with faulty Takata air bags — Ford, GM, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, BMW AG, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Mazda Motor Co., Mitsubishi and Subaru Motors USA. They issued callbacks even as Takata refused to declare the parts defective.

The recalls began in 2008 with Honda, and continued to expand over the last seven years. To date, the bulk of the vehicles recalled have been Hondas, which has reports of at least six deaths and 64 injuries connected to air bags exploding and sending deadly metal fragments flying.

Takata has been working to dramatically boost production of replacement parts. The company said in March it had boosted production to 450,000 replacement kits per month, up from 350,000 in December, and expects to be producing 900,000 kits per month by September. Honda announced last year it also would buy additional replacement inflator parts from Swedish supplier Autoliv.

Sources: NHTSA, press reports