Re: "Lighter" Side of Health Physics

[Michael McNaughton <mcnaught@lanl.gov>]

At 04:50 PM 4/17/00 -0500, you wrote:
>I'd be interested in hearing how any of you handle one of the albatrosses of
>our profession; the dreaded Glow-In-The-Dark joke. <SCREAM>

I say: "let me tell you a true story about glowing in the dark" and I tell
the heart-breaking story of the 6-year-old girl in Goiania, Brazil. Details
are in Health Physics volume 60 (January 1991). She applied 1E15 dpm of
Cs-137 to her body; to make the point of how much this is, I write it with
all 15 zeros. For those who do not have this issue of Health Physics at
hand, here is a synopsis.

The most extensive accident involving a radioactive source was in Goiania,
Brazil, in 1987. A 1,375-Ci, Cs-137 source was taken from an abandoned
radiotherapy unit and sold to a junk dealer. The dealer opened the capsule
and discovered it contained a powder that glowed in the dark. 

The glowing powder fascinated the dealer's six-year-old daughter. She
applied it to her body and showed it off to her mother. This game continued
for several weeks until people started to get sick. By this time, the
radioactive material had spread throughout the city. When an international
team eventually arrived, they found the six-year-old girl in an isolated
hospital room because the hospital staff were afraid to go near her.

In total, 112,000 people in Goiania were examined for radioactive
contamination. Of these,
· 249 were found to be contaminated with Cs-137,
· 20 were hospitalized with dermatitis,
· 14 suffered bone-marrow failure,
· 9 became sterile, and
· 4 died, including the six-year-old girl and her mother.

The cleanup took months. The six-year-old girl's toys were buried as
radioactive waste. The entire city was surveyed from the ground and the
air. More than 10 million banknotes were monitored for contamination.
Eventually, 86% of the original 1,375 Ci was recovered.

The original owners of the source were indicted for criminal negligence.

Mike McNaughton
email: mcnaught@LANL.gov or mcnaughton@LANL.gov
phone: (505)667-6130
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