Here’s what you’ll learn as you read this story:
-
In 1987, one of the worst radiological disasters in history occurred in Goinia, Brazil—and it all started with a scrap-metal theft gone wrong.
-
Two men unwittingly steal highly radioactive cesium-137 from an abandoned teletherapy unit in a partially demolished hospital.
-
It took several days for anyone to find out what had happened, and hundreds were unknowingly contaminated.
This has not happened either A whole century Since man first split the atom, in but that short time, nuclear science has produced weapons of unprecedented destruction as well as a slate of life-saving devices. One of those devices was the cesium-137 teletherapy machine, which uses its nuclear source primarily from fissile material to produce gamma rays that target tumors deep in the body. However, as residents of Goinia, Brazil learned in the waning months of 1987, even machines designed specifically to save lives from the ravages of cancer can unleash their own inferno of disease and death if not handled with extreme care.
In a way, the Goinia accident (as it is known today) actually started two years ago when a private radiotherapy clinic was called. Goyano Institute of Radiotherapy (IGR) moved to a new location in Goiânia. In this move, the institute relocated its cobalt-60 teletherapy unit, which was a higher technology due to the increased dose rate of the isotope, but left behind its old cesium-137 unit in violation of the institute’s license. A later report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The old hospital site was then partially demolished, and the dangerous, radioactive source inside the machine was left unprotected. While Brazil’s National Atomic Energy Commission was aware of the cesium-137 source in the building, legal disputes prevented the safe removal of the unit—a delay that led to fatal consequences.
On September 13, 1987, Roberto dos Santos Alves and Wagner Mota Pereira illegally entered the former IGR site and found the unit. Not knowing what it was, they partially disassembled it, and placed its highly radioactive source assembly in a wheelbarrow, hoping to sell it for scrap. During this disastrous caper, a capsule containing highly radioactive cesium chloride salt exploded, immediately contaminating the surrounding environment and directly exposing the two scrap thieves.
After several days of tinkering, Alves finally extracted the radioactive source capsule and sold it to a scrap metal dealer named Dewire Alves Ferreira, who later that evening observed the object emit a blue glow (probably ionizing the surrounding air with gamma rays). Things were going from bad to worse.
Ferreira brought the curious object to show family and friends, and one of Ferreira’s friends released the rice-sized cesium-137 chloride salt from the container. Soon Ferreira’s relatives began to fall ill one after another, including his wife Maria Gabriela Ferreira, who eventually became suspicious of the material and took them (by bus) to a nearby hospital for examination. Once cesium-137 reached commercial hands, the discovery of the material’s massive radioactivity triggered a series of responses by local, state, national, and international agencies such as the IAEA.
By October 3, all contaminated sources had been collected, contaminated sites had been cleaned up by Christmas, and remedial efforts continued until normal living conditions were re-established in March 1988. Three doctors from the IGR were eventually charged with criminal negligence, and with the Brazilian Atomic Energy Commission, the IAEA’s assistance in the development of new materials for the deactivation method of materials.
While Maria may have saved countless lives through her decision to alert someone to the material’s deadly radioactivity, she tragically died from radiation exposure. About 250 people were exposed to direct radiation, and four, including Maria, died from exposure, while Incidence of breast cancer occurred at a high rate in the region for decades.
Scientific research and long experience have shown that responsible radiation has an incredible power to heal, but when it falls into the wrong hands, its incredible power to kill becomes all too apparent.
You might like it too
