The Goiana accident is not as Tim describes. Many were to blame.

[John Cameron <jrcamero@facstaff.wisc.edu>]

>Tim wrote "I'm going on memory here...about the Gioania incident.

>As I recall, there was a container of Cs-137 powder (which I believe 

>is blue) left in an abandoned warehouse. Some children playing 

>nearby found the container and

>opened it (it was not an accidental "spill").  They thought the 

>powder looked neat and played games of "paint my face, I'll paint 

>yours."They got the stuff all over their hands, face, 

>mouth,etc...you name it. As I understood, after several of the 

>children who

played with the Cs got sick, health officials tracked it down. I 

believe half the town was "contaminated."  Some of the children did 

later die from the exposure."



Very little of the above is correct but one or more children did eat 

the Cs-137 and four people died from over exposure to radiation. .

Here is a bried summary of the facts.

A radiotherapy group in Goiania had a Cs-137 irradiator which was not 

useful for therapy. They stopped using it and left it an unused room 

and forgot about it. It is not clear that they had a physicist with 

them.  They did not reply to requests from the Brazilian authorities 

to report on the status of the source every three years. The 

authorities did not investigate the situation.

	The building containing the Cs source was partially 

demolished so that anyone could enter it. A junk dealer discovered 

the Cs irradiator but it was too heavy to remove but it was easy to 

remove the bolts holding the source- which was still very heavy but 

moveable. They  took it to their shop.  They figured the lead would 

be worth something. I believe the source was sold to another junk 

dealer who in attempting to dismantle it ruptured the source. In the 

dim light of the shop, the very radioactive source glowed and was 

lovely to behold. People rubbed it on their skin and at least one 

child ate some of it.

	The family  of  the junk dealer began to get radiation 

sickness. The mother put the remainder of the source in a sack and 

took it to a doctor saying this stuff is killing my family. The 

doctor (who was a veterinarian) called the fire dept. to dispose of 

it.  Someone  connected with the episode happened to know a medical 

physicist visiting in Goiania, whom they contacted. He borrowed a 

radiation meter (probably a GM counter) and when he turned it on it 

appeared to be defective (jammed?). He went back to get a functioning 

meter and turned it on well before he approached the location and 

found very high readings.

	He convinced the fireman not to dump the sack in the river as 

they planned but to vacate people from the vicinity and the vicinity 

of the junk shop where it was ruptured.  He must have been 

convincing. Within a short time the radiation authorities were on the 

job and the story made the world news.   People from Goiania were 

shunned as contaminated. They couldn't get a hotel room in other 

cities!

	There is an IAEA report and also a book written by a newsman 

which is where I learned that the "doctor" was a veterinarian, rather 

than an MD. The IAEA report only refers to the person as a doctor.

	The most knowledgeable person about the Goiania accident is 

Jose' Rozental, (joseroze@netvision.net.il ) who is now retired and 

lives in Israel.  He was in charge of the cleanup.  He has much 

information including PowerPoint files with photos.  Four people died 

from the accident. A sad but trivial accident in any large country. A 

drunk driver kills more nearly every day! Brazil spent much money on 

the clean up.  The money is needed much more to educate Brazilians.

	In September 1996 in Costa Rica 15 cancer patients died from 

over doses from a Co-60 mis-calibrated source.  The guilty person 

(i.e., the oncologist who hired an incompetent person to do his 

physics) left the country I believe.  Accidents will happen.

	On the other hand about 1,000 people a day die in the U.S. as 

a result of smoking cigarettes and nobody much cares about it. Some 

would rather worry about the risks of transporting radioactive waste! 

Best wishes, John



-- 

John R. Cameron (jrcamero@facstaff.wisc.edu)

2678 SW 14th Dr. Gainesville, FL 32608

(352) 371-9865 Fax (352) 371-9866

(winters until  about May  15)



PO Box 405, Lone Rock,WI 53556

(608) 583-2160; Fax (608) 583-2269

(summers: May 2002- September 2002)

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