Toyota Motor Corp. issued a recall for 247,000 cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks in the U.S. on Monday after U.S. safety regulators determined that vehicles' front passenger airbag inflators, manufactured by Japan's Takata Corp., can rupture and spray metal shrapnel.  

This most recent occurrence brings the number of recalled vehicles fitted with Takata airbags to 4.5 million.

Regional recalls by Toyota, Honda Motor and the Chrysler Group commenced after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) began investigating incidences of airbag explosions in Florida and Puerto Rico. 

NHTSA said in a statement on Monday that "the issue appears to be a problem related to extended exposure to consistently high humidity." Takata and automakers have since been attempting to determine whether such exposure was the cause of defects in the inflators.

Read more at Reuters. 

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