A Honda Motor Co. representative is in Hawaii this week to encourage the 26,000 Honda car owners in the state who haven’t replaced dangerous airbags to seek immediate repairs.

The manufacturer is offering free repairs and a loaner car to owners of vehicles with faulty Takata airbag inflators.

Honda spokesman Chris Martin, who traveled to Hawaii from Honda’s headquarters in Torrance, Calif., said Hawaii owners are in particular danger due to the state’s climate. Martin said the humidity makes the airbag’s inflator more susceptible to rupturing.

“When they’re consistently exposed to heating and cooling cycles with high humidity, the moisture gets inside the inflator and causes problems,” he said.

Martin said some 1,100 owners of Honda vehicles in Hawaii have a 50 percent chance of suffering from a potentially lethal airbag malfunction during a crash.

Owners at high risk are those who drive vehicles with a particular type of Takata front driver airbag inflator, called the “Alpha” inflator. Models with the Alpha inflator include: 2001-2002 Honda Accord; 2001-2002 Honda Civic; 2002 Honda CR-V; 2002 Honda Odyssey; 2003 Honda Pilot; 2002-2003 Acura 3.2 TL and 2003 Acura 3.2CL.

Martin said dealers will repair the vehicle, which takes about an hour to complete, for free, and that Honda will also pay for towing. The manufacturer is also offering to tow and repair affected vehicles that don’t run.

“We’ll do what it takes to make it as convenient as possible and get these Alpha inflators fixed,” Martin said.

While the Alpha inflator is a problem for only the seven models, Martin said all owners of 2001 to 2016 Hondas and Acuras should check the company’s recall website to see if their car has a different Takata airbag defect. Takata’s faulty airbag inflators affect more than 20 auto brands in the country.

Martin said Honda and Acura owners should enter their vehicle identification number at recalls.honda.com and recalls.acura.com.

Nearly 62 percent of affected Honda and Acura vehicles in Hawaii have already been repaired, and 79.6 percent of the Alphas have been repaired, according to Honda.

Martin said the Hawaii humidity causes a problem with the canister underneath the airbag, which contains the propellant used to inflate the bag.

As humidity absorbs into the propellant it causes higher pressure. The increased pressure is too much for the metal canister that holds the propellant, causing metal to break off and fly out at occupants of the vehicles.

“It just can’t handle that level of pressure that fast and it will break apart,” he said.

The recall began in 2009 shortly after a 19-year-old high school graduate in Arkansas was killed in a school parking lot after someone ran into the front end of her car.

Honda has confirmed 10 deaths in its vehicles due to ruptures of Takata airbag inflators in the U.S. and all but two of these involved Alpha inflators.

Martin said no one has been killed by the malfunctioning airbag in Hawaii.

“We’re trying to get them all fixed before we are tragically talking about someone being killed here,” he said.