Goiânia Accident - South America's Nuclear Tragedy
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- Опубликовано: 1 июн 2024
- On September 13, 1987, some men cracked open an abandoned source of cesium-137. What followed was one of the world's worst nuclear accidents.
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*Thanks for watching* and thanks to my Brazilian [STAFF] members for pronunciation help. Not many outside of Latin America known about what happened here, so I'm doing my best to bring it to light.
*One mistake poined out by Diogo Figueiredo*
The woman on the picture is not Maria Gabriela. That's famous Brazilian actress Betty Faria. Devair was holding the actress's picture after she visited him in the hospital.
As a Brazilian, I heard this same story a thousand times, and you told the best. Thanks!
I just came to the comment section to commend your pronunciation. Really well done, Kyle.
Thanks for bringing this to more people. I am proud of being the son of a direct survivor. My mother lived the street next to that family
Kyle: Has the incidence of cancer been tracked among the contaminated people?
your pronunciation was on point
congrats, portuguese is not quite the easiest language to pull out
"That's when he noticed that the particles in his garage were glowing blue."
Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.
Ya... That would have been my "Oh shit." Moment.
Aaand you’re dead.
Sparkly*
if you area scrappy it is probably worth getting a scintillometer or at least a dosimeter to keep in the building; radioactive stuff doesn't have to be putting out enough Cherenkov radiation to glow blue to be dangerous. there is still an unknown amount of quite radioactive steel getting around from scrapped medical and research equipment.
We are just crows with rights and anxiety
Between this and the Chernobyl tv series, I've learned one thing: if your radiation meter seems to be broken, RUN.
thats such a crazy realization
Depending on the situation that might already be too late
Yep. That's a good takeaway from these. If you're Geiger counter is reading off the charts, run for your life.
When the Geiger counter maxes out at 3.6 roentgen, and it's showing 3.6 roentgen, I'd say it's probably a good thing to make sure it's fucking accurate
Run for your life. But not at wrong direction.
Maria Gabriela Ferreira deserves credit, too, for being the first to recognize that it was the glowing blue powder, not tropical diseases or food poisoning that was making people around her (and herself) sick. How much longer would it have gone on, misdiagnosed, if she hadn't taken that bus ride to tell the authorities? Rest in peace, Maria Gabriela.
It fucking _hurt_ to hear she passed. The first one smart, or maybe just lucky, enough to see what was going on, and her reward for her vigilance in trying to protect her family was death. The little girl dying was awful, but Maria's death was a true tragedy: In trying to do what was right, she almost certainly killed herself by exposing herself to a concentrated dose of the radiation that was literally tearing her family apart.
Maria's story has stayed with me since the first time I watched this video. I think about her collecting all the caesium she could find into a bag and marching into the health center to say that this bag was killing her family several times a week. It just breaks my heart so much to think about how after putting the pieces together and making authorities listen and react, she still died from it. She almost certainly saved lives and almost certainly ended her own. I hope she's resting in peace.
According to the report, Maria had 6 Grays of exposure to her husband's 7, but because she had concentrated exposure on that bus ride she died while he lived. She died saving an entire city.
No no , she’s a woman, she can’t be given credit
I'm from Goiânia. My grandparents actually knew the little girl Leide Das Neves; she lived near their house. They were banned from their home at the time, and my mom and uncles, who were kids back then, were sent to my great-uncle's house in Brasília. My great-grandfather died of cancer afterwards from radiation because he refused to stay away from his house and keept going back there for his belongings. Years later, there were still remains of the radiation, and when I was born, my mom took me to get examined for any signs of radiation affecting her pregnancy.
Thank you for telling this story in such a respectful manner.
Gonhonha
Tell your people to read some books lol
@@Eddavidsonlikesmen At least my people know basic geography. Plus, we are not blindly patriotic towards a government responsible for numerous wars and dictatorships in other countries and that doesn’t provide us basic healthcare. Not only we can read books, but we can also get free eye surgery in case we need it to read better. 😘
@@sapphic_sufferingMETE BRASA MANA, americano tem que tnc pqp
This story is why everyone should be educated about radiation.
I'm from south Brazil, and learned about this in school. Not sure how widespread talking about this is around Brazil, but I'm assuming it is very much.
@@guiguspi Got that class twice, once in school and once in my Applied Radiation class in college all the way up here in Salvador.
I have to wonder how education about radioactive materials differs now, compared to the 1980s. I mean, obviously it's gotten better...or at least I certainly HOPE so...
But the only reason I already had an inkling that "it glows in the dark" was bad, was due to my own relatively odd tastes in reading for an 11 year old American. (and my parents being big ol' science nerds as well) And even then, I would've been confused - because I had the idea the "bad radiation" glowed GREEN, not blue. That, I learned from this series.
@@Beryllahawk My teacher used to say that if anything glows in the dark, no matter what color, there's a chance for it to be related to radioactive processes. It may be weak processes, like on those small Tritium/Deuterium glow sticks, it may be strong like in Cesium or Uranium. No matter what, if you find those in the wild just stray the hell away from it and call the authorities. Better safe than sorry.
I think that thanks to media, most of the current human population that is younger than 30, knows for sure that: Radiation = bad.
“The pieces in his garage were glowing, and glowing blue”
The way my heart dropped. Glowing blue never leads to anything good in this series...
True.
Anything glowing blue that's related to nuclear power and accidents reminds me of the Demon core.
"What's this?
"It's blue light."
"What does it do?"
"Shines blue."
"Well Mr. Rambo it appears you've been exposed to severe radioactive materials.. I'm afraid there is nothing we can do for you."
@@DevilEmoni i had JUST watched the Demon core episode and as soon as i heard "blue glow" i had the same reaction
@@laureningham9111 what episode? Who's Rambo? The Stallone character?
@@CapitaoAmerica737 theres a demon core episode that was posted a while back. Its very informative and eerie. All has to do with nuclear power and the dangers it can bring
Hearing how the little girl died from playing with what she thought was fairy dust absolutely broke my heart. RIP child.
As a person found out. There is a magical powder in a very famous children story written by a famous Brazilian writer. She certainly thought it was that. So sad.
@@bernardeugenio I think you refer to the "pó de Pirlim-pim-pim" (Pirlim-pim-pin dust) created by Monteiro Lobato in his "Sítio do Picapau Amarelo" (Yellow Woodpecker Ranch). I am not sure because Monteiro Lobato was huge when I was a child in the 60s and 70s and there was even a TV series based on this book. But he is a little forgot since the 80s. His tone treating other regions of the country and races is what we can call ... errr... a little insensitive for modern taste. I would not say he was racist but he really didn't approach the theme well sometimes and I think this made his books fade away. I think in 87 this story was not so popular anymore.
And AFAIK the pirlim-pim-pinm dust was not bright or fluorescent it just created magic.
@@bernardeugenio Ohhh PS she died fast because she ate a sandwich after playing with it for the first time with dust in her hands. Contrary to the others she ingested the cesium chloride and in a per weight basis was a huge dosage. This was widely said in the news at that time.
As a Brazilian... I must say...
Thank you for the respectful way to tell those people's history.
As sad as it was, the lesson remains.
i think this is one of the best videos i’ve ever seen on youtube about this story, definetly a valuable lesson that otherwise might’ve never been learnt. sometimes casualties are necessary to learn, even though it’s something (usually) nobody wants to
Boy the way, he did a good Job tô pronunciate Goiânia, portuguese is harder to match as spanish ir other latin languages.
These make me realize that several ancient stories of “cursed items” or “blighted lands” could have just been the accidental unearthing of naturally radioactive minerals.
Eeerr they don't glow unless refined/polished 🤔
@@joroc Something doesn't have to glow to cause disease and make people notice "Hey! That weird cave is killing people and all the insects went silent after we opened it up!"
Considering that there is a hotspot that was once a naturally occurring Nuclear reactor at Oklo....
@@yogawarriorgirl exactly. People just going about their lives and suddenly everyone who touched the stone Milo took from old cave is vomiting and their skin is burning….Demons! It’s cursed! There is a hex on the cave!
A large area in the outback of Australia is an example of this. The region is a large uranium bed, and the local tribes marked the region with dozens of red warning marks.
Thank that physicist who was able to stop the firefighters from throwing that cesium in the river!
Man deserves a medal!
@@jacobshirley3457 it's a metal that is liquified at 28C.
What's the average temperature in Goiania again?
It was in salt form. What do you think it was? Some conspiracy?
@@Jaws10214 goionia can’t melt cesium beams
@@jacobshirley3457 You miss the segment around 3:14 or...?
@@Jaws10214 is cesium chloride...
"I fell in love with the glow of death."
-- Devair (died 7 years later after the accident with Cesium).
He didn't even died because of the radiation, he went into depression and died of cirrhosis
My father is a doctor. He was in Rio when this happened, and treated a few of the victims who had been transferred there. He said that at the time no one knew anything about radiation, which made treatment very difficult as no one had the proper protocols.
The mention that firefighters nearly threw That Bag into a RIVER sent chills down my spine...
@Drew Fleck Chernobyl had happened one year earlier too but this is 80's Brazil, things were bad. People were illiterate and access to even basic information was hard. The military dictatorship was in this final years, economy and most family would put their kids to work to help pay the bills. It was bound to happen.
not least in having the context that it was water soluble. there's no way in hell anyone could have guessed that without having either the training in nuclear contamination or a degree in chem/physics so you can't even be too shocked that random firefighters would have no clue that chucking this thing in the river could have poisoned everyone for miles
South America solutions to problems
Firemen love direct action. That's why their favorite tool is an axe.
@@Malgus87 People couldn't know better, stinky star.
"The pieces in his garage were glowing blue"
no no no
"Three days later family and friends were invited to see the blue oddity"
NOOOOOO!
If it weren't for the small window required for the radiation to pass out of the vessel. He might have lost interest if it wasn't glowing blue
I was already screaming NO when they were trying to open the capsule.
I have bags of glow powder in my house, and my aqua looks just like cesium... ive also been so lazy and messy that many spills happened. Now im wondering how many people have called 911 over a "mysterious glowing powder" on the ground
as soon as he said the one guy was feeling sick after he started being around the capsule i was like "OOOOOOOOH SHIIIIIIT"
13:45 "the 6 year old who though she was paying with fairy dust" is such a saddening phrase, she didnt know, nobody did, RIP little one, may you have safety in the afterlife.
I find it morbidly hilarious that every time the dosimeter/Geiger counter maxes out in these stories, the first instinct is “must be broken”. Is the technology just unreliable or is it just sheer disbelief?
"the pieces in his garage were glowing"
and from that moment on I knew exactly how catastrophically horrible this entire ordeal was going to be.
I dont understand how that didn't show them right there to leave the shit alone instead of passing it around to famully members
Family
@@grimreaper4948 There are other phosphorescent materials people are much more familiar with, unless you know about Cherenkov radiation it wouldn't cross your mind in a million years that that's what it was. These were simple people from a rural area, when they think "radiation" they think "Hiroshima" they don't think "funny powder".
@@MelkorPT considering how many layers of protection they had to break through to get the dust I call BS.
These people are just genuinely stupid.
@@Giliver not stupid, but ignorant. There is a difference. This is why education and knowledge are so important.
I'm from Goiânia!
Today this tragedy is being slowly forgotten here, everyone knows about the term "césio 137", but the events are remembered very superficially.
Here It's not uncommon to hear jokes about how the cesium is responsible for the locals people natural glow.
It's really significant to see you talking about the cesium incident today to so many people across the world, after all we need to remember our mistakes, as those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Also really important to talk about how misinformation basically stoked the flames of the whole thing.
During the few months/years after the cause for the illnesses was discovered, a lot of the national discourse came on very heavily against Goiás as a whole.
This kind of mindset was specially exemplified in Hebe Camargo (one of the biggest brazilian TV personalities at the time), who said that people from the entire state were now "contaminated" and "radioactive".
For a period of time, it was very hard to interact with the other states if you were from Goiás (even more Goiânia) due to the amount of misinformation about what truly happened and about radioactivity as a whole. Some people actually thought there were "irradiated hillbillies" around here.
Eu não teria dito melhor, Luan. Aliás, fazer piada com isso é de muito mal gosto, eita pessoal sem noção. Eu acompanhei todo o incidente pela TV, tinha por volta de 12 anos na época.
Bom ver outro goiano por aqui
@@buggytheprophet1017 Na verdade, somos Pernambucanos.
@@pedrofaria2465 The Brazils Have Eyes.
I'll show myself out.
Possibly the most heartbreaking part of this to me was the little girl, Leide das Neves Ferreira, who thought she had gotten fairy dust. I can’t imagine the amount of fear and pain she was in.
I’ll tell you all one thing. A radiation meter is NEVER broken. Your heart just wants to believe it is
"who thought she was playing with fairy dust" always hits so hard. Something that seems so innocent and unassuming can destroy everything in its path.
I think this is the saddest part of the accident. I always think about this little girl
@@joaofranco9751 Me too. Radiation poisoning is a really bad way to go for an adult who has at least some vague idea of what's going on, and it's heart breaking to think of it happening to an innocent 6 year old.
Always? How many times did you watch this?
@@lorenzoniccoli99ln at least like five times. I put his videos on in the background because his voice is soothing lo
Considering how brutal, uncaring and eldrich real fae can be in mythology, fairy dust is eeriely apropiate term
"There is something wrong with the meter." History only repeats itself.
So true
I thought the same
Had something similar happen in a hospital with my friend's Grandfather. They took him in to the emergency room because his pulse was slow. The intern put a pulse-ox on his finger. Took it off and shook it, and put it back on. He took it off, went in another room, and came back with a different one. Grandpa John's pulse was twelve. _12!_ People with a pulse of twelve are generally not conscious. Grandpa was just sitting there chatting like everything was normal. "You should be unconscious!" "Oh? Is that so?" He was 102 at the time. A few hours later he went home with a brand new pacemaker. He lived three more years.
Did the guy even test the meter BEFORE leaving the office to the possible (ultimately actual) radiation source?
3.6 rontgen not great not terrible
I'm Brazilian, and you actually pronouced the names pretty well. I remember reading about about this case in a history book, but it was only a section like "read here if you're interested" type, it was never mentioned in class, but I never forgot about it, especially about the little girl that died.
Maria Gabriela couldn't be saved, but she saved so many people.
I already watched this documentary a long time ago, but RUclips thought I should watch it again, no regrets for me.
Iven translating to Spanish, the pronounce is just like portuguese
You should be ashamed for these idiots
Sério? Eu lembro claramente da prof de química falar com detalhes desse caso. Talvez a gente seja de gerações diferentes
@@mariahbd8365 cara alguns professores contam mas acho que o que a pessoa quer exemplificar é que isso não faz parte nem do currículo fixo de história nacional, o que é bizarro pq foi o pior desastre nuclear da América Latina, no nosso país!! E msm assim não é algo que seja de conhecimento geral.
How can I ever forget this incident? At the time, I was 25 years old. It was horrifying to know whatever they went, they contaminated everyone, especially when carrying the Cesium137 around, on the city buses, and everywhere they went. It was a lesson we Brazilians have never forgotten. They made a movie over 30 years ago and now have restored the movie. It's called CÉSIO 137 - O pesadelo de Goiânia. It's in Portuguese.
The firefighters wanting to throw it in the river was something I didn't know, I'm so glad that physicist was there 😰
*+*
Sim, mano, magina só a merda colossal que ia dar 😨😨😥
@@pedrodettoni4638 provavelmente teríamos água radioativa até hoje, já que eu duvido muito que o rio iria carregar a bolsa, ela ficaria lá no fundo liberando radioatividade pelo leito do rio inteiro, até chegar no mar.
Acredito que esse sim seria de fato o maior acidente nuclear da história. A quantidade de pessoas que seria afetada por isso seria colossal.
@@nox_cadit sim, fora o desastre ambiental, centenas de espécies iam diminuir drasticamente, talvez até serem extintas, fora as mutações :x
@@pedrodettoni4638 mas isso aí eu já tô levando em conta hehehe
Moral of the story: if it is glowy and blue, run like hell.
If it’s glowing blue, and you can see it nearby… you’re already irradiated and need to go to the hospital.
@@christopherriley6299 That's probably more accurate.
correction: any thing glowing any color and it's not on fire or hot , run away from it.
@@desiguy55 you would be running from a lot of stuff, there is actually a lot of stuff that phosphoresces in our environment now (and a fair bit of it is natural), that specific blue glow is pretty unforgettable. It is worth keeping in mind, also if you are seeing a lot of white flashes in your eyes when near an object it is also probably worth leaving alone till you find a meter for ionising radiation.
No, If it's on government property, glows blue and it's not yours, Leave It Alone!
It broke my heart hearing about how the people were fascinated by it and thought they had been blessed. Even though it happened decades ago, there's this sense of helplessness and wishing you could go back and warn them. What a tragedy.
the urge to get a radiation detector has only gone up while revisiting this fascinating series, Thank you for making it
I was in the US Navy as a Nuclear power plant mechanic/operator. Every single one of these short doc videos has covered an incident that we had to cover during our 2 year training schedule. It’s very possible that these videos are now being used to train future nuclear operators in the Navy because these are way better than the articles we read about it all.
Would be nice, I've seen some of your training materials and a lot are, well, shit from decades ago.
That's incredibly high praise Avery, thank you.
@@kylehill High praise from a decorated space marine from the future, no less!
@@majorgnu not just a marine but one who knows what the ladies like!
@@kylehill You deserve high praise!
What really gets me about this is that it could have been avoided if only the new landowners had allowed the former clinic owner to retrieve his equipment.
Or if the people hadn't been so dumb and smeared some mysteriously glowing powder from the scrapyard all over their bodies.
@@reinholdbeck7097 me to it drove me crazy and I feel real bad for the little girl who wouldn't know any better 😔
@@reinholdbeck7097 they weren't dumb, they were ignorant and uneducated on the subject matter. They were victims, not perpetrators.
@@nicholassparks7254 They surely were ignorant but at the same time very naive. There's a good reason why a container is designed to keep you from taking what is inside it. Just the fact that no one questioned the risk of unknown glowing substance is a sign of stupidity to me. No brains cells activated when all the red flags were up. You dont need education to understand that something is weird.
@@nicholassparks7254 " they weren't dumb, they were ignorant..."
There's a difference?
I've worked in a scrapyard and this very senario was always nightmare fuel for me. People would just show up with barrels and containers that you'd have no idea where they came from or what they had contained.
I feel for the little girl. She passed because she thought she was playing with fairy dust. Rest easy. ❤
arent fairies evil?
@@mithos789 Not intrinsically, no. There were good ones, bad ones, and neutral ones. Can't go into more detail because I'm no expert, but this much I do know at least
This guy taking the radioactive material to the hospital:
"So hey, I took this glowing powder fro-"
Doctor: "You did WHAT!?"
@hick any person who doesnt know radiation would have done that.
That honestly is what the average person would do. N honestly its going to happen to America sometime soon due to the ignorance and idiocy its people are becoming.
@@joshshin6819 you can but glow in the dark powder for crafts etc that isn't radioactive
@@RS-xq6je that's not all that different than what they thought they had
@@solgato5186 if that powder was encased in a metal and lead container, is safe to say someone didn’t want you to handle it directly
It's frustrating to hear how the family were the ones villainized and not the landowner and courts who knew the cesium was there but blocked all efforts to secure it before a containment breech.
the owner tried to remove it but was prevented because of legal issues, apparently...
Long live lawyers, nothing good happens around them.
This is Brazil...
@@jwenting
And true to form, the owner's warning went unheeded. In many ways, this is why we should take this type of matter very seriously.
That's expecting people to blame themselves for being ignorant and taking it upon themselves to be educated
Then again, the family member did illegally trespass into there for "scrap" to make a buck with.
I usually never get choked up or feel all that sad about anything but with what happened with Leide (German word for suffer coincidentally) it's very heart breaking. Especially when you know the innocent and sweetness of people like her. She suffered for about a month, people wouldn't approach her, and I'm sure she was in such significant pain and felt extremely alone. Then imbeciles even protested her burial. When I first heard of the protesters I thought that they were angry such a sweet child would die such a horrible death without any accountability.
I was born in '75 and remember hearing about this incident on TV at the time. There was a big scramble to identify and locate orphan sources from medical equipment and make sure it couldn't happen here in the US. It's just so incredibly sad, both because of the victims and due to how preventable it was.
People in the comments are blaming the state of education in Brazil say the time but I have a hard time believing it could have happened anywhere. If some random guy here in the US had found something like this the time from discovery of the material to identification of the true cause probably wouldn't have been much different.
"She thought she was playing with fairy dust" hits so hard
Not gonna lie, I cried.
I have little children.
:(
Absolutely horrifying.
What an idiot lol
Radioactive medical equipment is far more terrifying than radioactive nuclear waste. Everyone knows the horror of leaked nuclear waste and these plants are heavily controlled by governments, but medical device equipment can often be improperly disposed or left abandoned just because people underestimate it's potential to do massive harm.
How much does it cost to dispose of? Only corporate consideration.
Neither the Mexican or American media report on this, but radioactive medical equipment is frequently stolen by organized crime in Mexico. This has been going on for years, hopefully they're just selling on the black market to be used for its intended purpose (medical).
Just like the Juarez incident, where a similar scrapper took metal from a device and sold it to foundries to make metal that became rebar used in many buildings all across Mexico.
The metal he stole was Cobalt 60. They still haven't been able to track down all of the contaminated metal.
Yes! Like the orphan source in Eastern Europe where the three dudes noticed this capsule they found was warm and used it as a stand in camp fire. 😬😬😳
Not enough people know the dangers and we are curious.
I definitely agree with your statement. I will say nuclear plants are not as well regulated in some countries that still use nuclear power. I would be a little wary in some of those places for sure. In Sweden or the us for instance, I would not be concerned whatsoever.
@@micahphilson holy shit
I'm from Brazil (different state) and my father have told me about this story once with surprisingly accurate details but not fully complete, after that I have searched once about it, and now this video is the third time i had seen about it, pretty complete timeline, very good presentation of the facts and displacements. Really an amazing video with tons of effort into it.
It was really a sad accident, a tragic hellish disaster.
PS: Loved to see some sketches and texts in my mother language (PT-BR)
This has always been the most depressing historical event. Like, they were all just a bunch of friendly social people who were just fucking around with some cool sparkly dust they found. And from the governments negligence, they were punished horribly for it.
No one seems to be talking about the mother that gathered and removed the remaining powder saying it was killing her family. She likely saved so many lives by doing that.
Right, she was the hero of the story. She likely died because she gathered it all up like that
Amen 🥀🪶
@@heatherduke7703 yeah.She was the last to die.
In my eyes, Maria is a hero for recognising what was causing her family's sickness.
I don't know if I would call her a Hero. I think the more appropriate word or phrase would probably be "Critical thinker" for recognizing what should have been obvious to everyone. It doesn't exactly take a genius to draw a line from rubbing strange glowing powder on your body to violently puking and sickness within the hour.
@@aSinisterKiid That doesn't mean she isn't a hero... a lot more people would have died from radiation exposure if she had not done something.
@@Whickerx7 The potential outcome doesn't make her actions "heroic". She just made a logical decision given the circumstances. This was a series of really stupid mistakes caused by being generally uniformed of the science of radiation back in the 80's/90's. But it didn't take someone with a PHD to say that you maybe shouldn't eat glowing sand. She just made a logical connection between the sudden sickness everyone was experiencing and newly encountered "strange substance". That doesn't make you a hero, it just means you were a little more intelligent and cautious with a foreign object. The fact that thousands more people didn't get contaminated was just a fortunate outcome of the entire event. Why aren't you calling the guy who brought the meter to the building to discover it was radioactive a hero ? He's the one who truly identified the problem. He made them shut the building down and remove everyone. He saved hundreds of lives with his actions, is he a hero ? By that line of thinking then he's also responsible for hundreds of people getting sick because he didn't trust the meter the first time and wasted 3 hours going back to get a new one. Hundreds of people got contaminated by his "inaction" at that choice. But no one is even concerned about his actions at the end of the day. His actions weren't "heroic" and his misunderstanding of how bad it was at first also aren't something to find him at fault for. He was just doing his job at the end of the day. And she was just making a logical decision given the circumstances everyone was suddenly experiencing. But using the word "hero" is only really meant for some pretty monumental actions that are done with an intention behind them. The truly astounding choice to run into a fire to save someone's life at risk of your own life - that is heroic. Putting your own life in danger to save someone else's life is what makes someone a "Hero".
@@aSinisterKiid All you really did was explain that you use the word hero differently from other people. That doesn't make them wrong, it just means you don't accept common usage of words.
@@aSinisterKiid well bruce banner is also a critical thinker, that isn’t stopping him foram saving lives
I'm from Brazil. Thank you for sharing this sad part of our history. Unfortunately Goiânia stills have some parts of cesium-137 at the city, has some causes of cancer in children because of this.
Thank you so much for bringing light to this tragedy, and a huge thank you and blessing Maria Gabriella. If it wasn't for her bravery and courage, many more would have become seriously injured or died. I first heard of this event years ago and from time to time think about what would happen if Maria didn't bring that bag to the health center. Rip to her and those who have died because of this unnecessary tragedy. If the radioactive powder was handled properly from the start, no lives would be lost or horribly damaged.
The story of the little girl who played with it like fairy dust is heart-breaking, to see something she thought was so wonderful that took her life.
the medical professionals refused to get near her because they were afraid, when the poor kid died she had to be put into a huge lead coffin (lead keeps radiation contained) and they had to use a crane to bury it, it's so incredibly sad man
(btw, she actually ate a lot of the cesium)
(I am Brazilian)
@@barbara_LL bruh
@@ingmarvanolffen bruh indeed
well at least she wont make that mistake twice.
@@jwag301 uncool
This has got to be the realest example of “curiosity killed the cat” ever.
one guy smeared it on body lol, we're far past curiosity at that point 😂
its not the people who found this material's fault this happened. its the fault of the company who sourced the material, made the device, and abandoned it in the ruins of the hospital
Radiation killed curious scientists who knew aboutitsdangers, what would you expect from ordinary people.
The lack of information and the hospital's disregard for proper handling killed them
Anyone would be curious about a glowing powder
"but /satisfaction/ brought it back". Education can only travel so far, history will be doomed to repeat itself.
Resided in Brazil when this happened; I was 14 y.o.
I knew it was serious (given the media cover), but watching this made me realize how truly serious and scary the incident was.
There is a really heartbreaking episode of House that makes an oblique reference to this disaster, too -- in it, a man who owns a scrapyard gives his son a piece of metal shaped like a teardrop that turns out to be from a piece of disused radiotherapy equipment, with terrible results.
There's also the Therac-25 incidents where software issues in a model of radiotherapy machine wound up killing and injuring multiple people. I learned about that one 20 years ago, and it makes me check software I'm working on, even though my job is just to write the documentation! (I've found many bugs, too.)
I remember that episode of House, it was wild
*''If humans weren't such social creatures we would avoid this incident entirely''*
well,it's good to know that i won't cause a radioactive catastrophy
Or avoid this incident all together
Grug
Brazilians are socialists omg!
I think the correct phrase should be Human ignorance and stupidity
@@toucan6109 ?
What ever is in this bag is killing people "let's throw it in the water supply" good idea
And people wonder why countries with nuclear power are hesitant to export the technology. Ignorance is one of the bigger reasons.
That's why no one takes South America seriously to many peasants with no education!!
@@NathanChisholm041 ??? A Cold War era nuclear disaster that was started by one guy but quickly contained by the authorities seems inadequate data to justify your assertion.
Amazing logic by that local fire department
@@neolexiousneolexian6079 Hardly contained! For one if I saw glowing blue powder I certainly wouldn't be going around giving it out! Even in the 80s! These are uneducated ppl! Even the doctors were clueless. And who fucking leaves Nuclear waste just lying around?
Thank you for bringing this story to more people all over the world, I live in Goiânia since 2004 and it's a heavy subject to this day. Really saddens me, people had no idea what was that glowing powder, it was something absolutely new to the medical and scientific community, which means that most part of the population had no idea of what radiation is. It really really saddens me.
About pronunciation: it's okay, I could understand what you meant in every Brazilian word, name and expression, and it's not your native language, you really did a great job.
Thank you again for talking about this!
Being from the city that this took place, you hammered everything. The consequences continued for years, and many people from other parts of Brazil became worried about having contact with the people from there
I am a Medical Physics student from Goiânia and this was one the best documentaries I've seen on the accident. Respectful and informative. I'll definitely recommended it to my colleagues and professors, since a very important part of our job is to educate people on how to safely deal with radiation, and the consequences of not doing it so, especially in our city. Amazing job!
If you don't mind me asking what do you think about the abandoned medical facility and the danger it may still pose? And also how many more abandoned facilities like this may still pose a potential threat to trespassers and the public in general?
@@spiwolf6998 The abandoned medical facility he talked about no longer exists, after the accident everything was properly disposed of. Since the accident a lot has changed. The National Center of Nuclear Energy (CNEN in Portuguese) that he mentions in the video has a lot of regulations on the disposal and decommissioning of this kind of medical facilities, and they are also responsible for the supervision. Hospital owners, doctors and medical physics are also legally responsible for everything regarding these equipments, thus preventing another accident like this one. I've never heard of another abandoned clinic like that after the accident, and if another one were to appear, I'm sure the response would be very different regarding any equipment that might be there.
I wish you the best of luck in your work, Samuel. I appreciate your efforts and dedication to the field.
I am born and raised in Goiânia and totally agree. One of the best documentaries about the accident I have ever seen!
@@MrSamuel568 That's awesome. Thank you so much for your work and for replying. 🇵🇹💕
"The fire department was planning on throwing the components in the river". This gave me chills. Its absolutely horrifying that a simple action of the uneducated could lead to a disaster equivalent to dropping a nuclear bomb.
Uneducated as a peyorative term or the literal sense? Cause those people were trained but not to recogniced and deal with that kind of hazards.
HORRIFYING INDEED
@@kiriki4558 it is common sense to not throw foreign substances in water sources.
@@jonathansoko5368 it's easy to judge something from the outside, in your comfy home with a video explaining everything that happened to you and say "of couse, i would definetly know what Is that thing i've never encountered or heard about before instanly, and what to do. I'm so smart, and the people who had to deal with the real situation is so stupid"
Is no different of judging people víctims of a mass shooting, as if we would have acted like heros and beat up the shooter instead of paralizing or hiding with fear.
@@kiriki4558 I’m sorry but there is nothing wrong with pointing out appallingly stupid behaviour. These people were in the fire department, they were told that a substance in a bag was killing people and their plan was to throw that bag into a river… I’ll call them absolute morons because they clearly were and their idiocy could have killed many people.
Set aside the immense lack of education the country was in at the time, the bravery and efficiency of the people that decontaminated the city and treated the ill patients is one of the very rare brazilian hero stories that are praised and taught in school, at least in the region I grew up in.
In the display sign of the original radiotherapy capsule, it translates: ''To those who, in the greatness of anonymous work, fullfilled their mission of rescuing the radiation victims and decontaminating the affected area.''
This was an excellent video! Radiation sources need to be traceable and constantly monitored, and should never be left without proper isolation and disposal. It's insane that a petty land dispute led to negligence and catastrophe.
I've been to the bulldozed lot where that family's house used to be. Haunting.
Living in Goiânia for the past few years has been great. It is a beautiful state capital full of incredible architecture, vibrant parks and warm people. The food here is amazing, too. As far as Brazil goes, this is a really amazing city.
“… the six year old, who thought she was playing with fairy dust.” This truly hurt, the way that was said really made me see how such a pure and carefree child would think when handling such hazardous material. Truly it is a loss for such accidents that have and possibly will happen again. That’s why I live by the words hope for the best and expect the worst no matter what I am doing or where I am. Hope you all stay safe out there in this crazy world because for me it just got a bit crazier after watching this.
It's truly heartbreaking. The only thing I could think the whole time was "those poor fools." How could they know? They didn't even know what they didn't know. Truly tragic.
@@dezmodium Unfortunately, here in Brazil, we got a really shitty education system. I'm not surprised that the involved ones were part of the poor in Brazil.
That line almost broke me.
Very sad. I hope you are holding up as well in this crazy world.
@@dezmodiumtbh, your description fits life in general.
we all start out with bad directions...
We definitely need more short documentaries like this from Kyle. It's the voice that does it for me.
It's the hole Kyle that does it for me
Same!!! He could literally talk about anything in this format and I’d watch
What exactly does the voice do for you though....
Agreed.
It's somber, subtle, even disturbing and for good reason.
Also ... I think he breaks down JUST a little bit at the end of the video where he talks about the Captain Planet episode of the 2 children. He even steps off screen for a moment....then comes back to finish the video with a joke to lighten the mood.
This stuff is no joke.
ASMR at its best, which gives these their oh-so prevalent eerie atmosphere
People who know Halo Lore know "NEVER MESS WITH ALIEN DUST"
This video literally gives me goosebumps all over my body. It’s chilling.
“Dips his fingers in the powder and draws a cross on his chest” And this is how the Children of Atom were founded.
Nice.
Ernesto covered a spider in the glowing dust and let it bite him. Unfortunately instead of receiving the powers of a spider, he got leukemia and died
Spot the recent atheist in the room
@Max Power you troll on every other comment lol get a life man
“Behold! He is coming with the clouds! And every eye shall be blind with his glory! Every ear shall be stricken deaf to hear the thunder of his voice!"
"...a blue glow..."
Oh, I remember the Demon Core incident, blue glow is bad.
**a number of people played with the glowing blue powder**
And that is far, far worse...
For me its element 115 in zombies
@@Se7enDsinSGaming and if you touch 3 of the rocks, song plays.
All that glitters is not gold.
115 Easter egg was just found
Yup. I knew it was radiation because of the context of the video, but the moment they said blue glow, I got a confused look from my roommates because I was staring at my screen and suddenly said, "oh shit."
Their confusion? Funny. The incident? Far from it.
Thanks buddy, I am from Goiás and I was born the same year this tragedy took place. I grew up on a city 300km away from Goiânia. I vividly remember my mom telling about this fact and recommending us to never touch anything that we don't know for sure what it is.
Thank you very much, and congratulations on your pronunciation, I give you a 9.5 out of 10 in Portuguese.
I actually had to stop this video and cry, it's so unbelievably tragic.
I was just a child when this happened. I remember being worried about all those people but at the same time glad I lived far away. Today, as a physicist and science educator, I teach about this incident on every opportunity that I have. My small contribution so it can never happen again.
I studied architecture in school. Our teacher used Bhopal to explain why we have zoning laws.
Yes, providing that they will LISTEN! I've LITERALLY people tell me that "if it LOOKS like water, it's water". Well...heavy water LOOKS like water, tastes like water, etc...but if you drink enough of it, YOU WILL DIE!
@@NiceMuslimLady That is the challenge we're facing on a daily basis. To say that the Scientific Literacy situation is lacking, is an understatement.
Friendly Reminder:
Evolution does Exist and the Earth is not Flat.
But even if you know such arguably-basic things (good for you, BUT),
even then you can always learn more!
Do you know enough about Autism; for example; to not fall for
the partially-WILD Misconceptions flying around and around and around?
Ya sure?
Ok! If so, then what about various Social Problems? Hacking? Fish? Golf?
Theres more and its waiting for you.
@@slevinchannel7589 I don't know enough about Autism because it is not my field of study, but I do know that it is a broad and complex spectrum and between family and close friends I have daily contact with three beautiful children and they are completely different from one another. And that is what Scientific Literacy means: it's to recognize and understand science as a process, including things like complexity, independent of the area of knowledge. It is less about retaining information and more about understanding how knowledge is formed, maintained, and updated.
That poor little girl died alone and suffering the worst pain you can imagine. There's a photo I've seen on reddit of her all alone in her containment box. It's just such a tragedy. Not only did Leide put the dust on her face and arms, but she ingested some of it cuz she still had it on her hands when she ate her lunch.
How bad is it? Is she like, crying and horrified in the picture or something. Or was she pretty much incapacitated just laying on a bed? Sorry, I want to know about it but im too afrade to go look myself.
@@stealthchopper54 She's lying in a bed in the containment box and no-one is near her. :( It's just so sad.
And she couldn’t even be laid to rest without a riot trying to prevent it. Awful. I hope she’s playing with all the real fairy dust she wants now. 💔🧚♀️🪄✨
you might think its sad...i get it. but mother nature is cruel and efficient. Darwinism right in front of your eyes
@@stealthchopper54 She died alone in horrible pain, a nurse said she could hear her screaming all the time for help but everyone was afraid of her and no one wanted to stay with her. They had no training or equipment to deal with this.
I just wanted to clarify that the word "bomba" in portuguese has two meanings; it can refer to an exploding device, OR a pump, like a mechanical or pressure pump. In the radiological medicine context it is supposed to mean "cesium pump" or "cesium source", if you will; so nothing to do with an actual exploding device.
This really puts into perspective just how destructive a mere handful of radioactive material can actually be.
Typing from Goiânia, I'd like to congrat you for a considerate and accurated aproach on the Cesio 137 accident. You showed not only an extensive dedication in the research, but also respect for the victims and a good effort in pronouncing the brazilian names. Many people, annacronicaly judge an 1980's accident by nowadays knowledge about radiation and security protocols, blaming the victims. Your work shed some light on the largest radioactive accident outside of a nuclear plant.
@Aluzky look pal, if they stole it or were looking for scraps it's not their fault there were radioactive shit laying around. Also are you brazilian? if not you have no right telling what people should or not do lmao this is a third world country we're talking about, things were even worse back then, and their actions are just reflective of what people did and still do here to survive. How about thinking before you speak and learn how to be more considerate next time? Or else, pick up a book on other countries history so you can learn a thing or two about how life is outside your perfect lawful citizen little bubble. TCHAU QUERIDA
@Aluzky theft does not warrant the death penalty
One shouldn’t need an education to know to not play with the strange glowing thing that immediately causes you to start puking and feeling like you are going to die.
Or are you trying to say Brazilian and/or poor people don’t understand cause and effect?
@Aluzky If you were in the USA now you'd be impressed that anyone figured out what was wrong. Mad props to the smarter people in the 1980s, I say
@Aluzky you sound like someone with no idea of the world around them
Wow, can we also just recognize how much of a hero Maria was as well? She kept pushing back because she knew something was wrong with the powder; who knows how many more lives would have been lost had she not been so persistent.
I thought as much as well. I also thought about the fact that she unknowingly contaminated everything they contacted during that trip. But, what else could she have done? Call the authorities to come to her town? No, the town’s good luck was that she took the bag of cesium to a place where it could be recognized for what it was.
Kind of like the people who are posting videos about what happened to them with the jab, but most people wouldnt listen, because they don't recognize the properties of graphene nor understanding what it does and how it works, nor do they understand what a cyto toxin is, or what it does.. 🤔 and no, I'm not joking, in any way.
That video should come out in the next 5-10 years.
@@allywolf9182 that's because those people are faking it for attention, listen to scientific evidence instead of spreading misinformation like this. People of Goiania prevented further deaths and damage by listening to scientists and doctors
@@svjetlanaravlic7713 ex-fucking-xactly.
If the doctor hadn't been around to test the cesium's radiation with a GEIGER COUNTER (another thing borne of science), then surely many many more people would have died.
@@allywolf9182 you need to stop with the conspiracy theories
This mini-doc was so well done. Thank you for the respect with which you told this tragic story.
I remember when I was a child my father found me playing with a thermometer because I wanted to remove the mercury inside it to play and he got mad and took it away from me . Later on he explained to me the danger of mercury poisoning. I didn’t quite understood because I was very young but I always remember how upset he was and later when I grew up I read all about mercury and radiation and such subjects.
Hey, Kyle! I'm Brazilian and heard of this story when I was a kid. I'm 30s into this video and must say, this is the first time I see images of what those things actually look like! Thanks for that. Keep up the great work!
I recently revealed the genders of my two girlfriends. It got a lot of hate and now has 30 times more dislikes than likes. I am really sad that people can be so mean. Sorry for using your comment to talk about my problems, dear gui
@@AxxLAfriku wtf
I second that...never saw any images or even read about it really. Just heard
@@JP-wh2un Annoying spammer always plugging his channel. Just report and ignore.
@@AxxLAfriku bro whats up with you're channel. Disturbing..
I remember an urban legend going around the schoolyard, when I was in middle school (mid to late '90s), about kids finding a poisonous glowing powder in a garage.
I now realize that it was NOT an urban legend, per se, but rather the mythologised collective memory amongst kids, inherited via the news from this event.
I live in Sweden, btw.
Even here in Brazil, my first contact with the incident was like yours, a tale of kids who found an X-Ray machine and came in contact with radioactive elements.
This reminded me of a story about a guy that used to do experiments with radioactive elements, he would go to several scrapyards collecting those smoke detectors because they have a dangerous element.
He would store The detectors and do experiments with it in his mothers garage. When authorities started noticing suspicious behavior, they checked there and the place was completely radioactive, it had to be demolished. And the guy had several skin problems, his face and hands were a mess and I think he died lather
@@TheFernandinho yup, the infamous radioactive boy scout.
I'm brazilian and also heard the same kind of urban legend. Nice take on how mythos works and how it's part of a collective memory
Something similar also happened in Mexico around he 80s i think. Some guys broke down an abandoned x-ray machine and ended up contaminating an entire city. The worst part was that a lot of the radioactive scrap ended up being melted to make rebar that was then sold across the entire country, so right now theres a lot of radioactive houses and buildings around México that most people don't know about.
You did great pronouncing the names in Portuguese. Thank you for spreading awareness about this accident.
That poor little girl must have suffered before she died. It's so heart breaking that she ate her food whilst watching her arms and hands sparkle from the dust
The worst of it is the people that protested against her funeral.
I’m brazilian and it’s said that she stayed all alone in a room on the hospital because the nurses and doctors were afraid to get near her and they also wouldn’t let her parents go inside as well, so she died all alone after weeks of terror
@@MariaFernandazz :(
@@nathalia5463 Honestly, that's understandable. They didn't understand exactly how radiation worked, so obviously they were afraid of the girl's body which was contaminated heavily.
@@HS-ts5wf actually, the more they understood, the less likely they would want to go near her. Would you? Knowing that every hour you stay near Ms Sparkly Hands, greatly increases your chance of cancer?
"The cesium bomb" was a truly accurate way of describing the orphan source. It wasn't explosive, but once released it spread across the community, causing devastation in its wake. If only they had listened to him...
I think the guy was likely referring to something more literal, called a dirty bomb.
A dirty bomb does not have sufficient or the correct kind of material to be nuclear. however by containing radiological material, such as caesium. Conventional explosives can spread that material far and wide. as fine dust to be inhaled by anyone in a radius around the detonation.
This video is how much damage one capsule of caesium can do when just disassembled. now imagine if it was detonated in a city centre.
A dirty bomb is one of the most feared things that a terrorist could potentially do. The refined material and physics expertise needed mean there's little concern of a terrorist ever having an actual nuclear bomb, However, a Dirty bomb can be created with far easier-to-obtain materials like natural uranium or medical radiation sources.
In fact, "bomba" in portuguese can refer both to the ammunition "bomb" and the pedestrian equipment known as "pump". So I believe it was in fact called a "cesium pump", also meaning "source" in the context of medical equipment. So no, it´s not a bomb...
I live in Goiânia, was 12 years old in 1987, and this accident happened right in front of my grandma’s house. Fortunately she wasn’t affected and passed away in 2014 at the age of 97.
You find glowing dust. What do you do?
- Dip my fingers in it. Draw a cross on my abdomen. Maybe taste it a little bit.
If you don’t know any better, you turn to religion. It’s only natural
Tasting is actually worse than anything else you can do with it, since MUCH more of the radiation will be delivered directly to all your organs as it won't have to penetrate your skin
I've never gotten the impression that your Half-Life Histories essays have been exploitative in any way. I've, to my shame, learned of certain incidents that I should have come across over the course of research years ago. So by all means, Kyle, keep on penning and narrating more ideas for entries. This is among the best that RUclips, and maybe all of video-sharing, has to offer.
Why do humans do this? Why do we feel shame when we learn? For not learning sooner?
Gaining knowledge shouldn't put us down but I do the same thing. It doesn't matter what we learn when, so long as we maintain the desire to learn.
Same I have never heard of a lot of these
Who said they were exploitive? That's terrible. These are very well written and presented.
@@linmcclain3798 in the video he clarified that it wasnt meant to be exploitative, thats where the comment was referring to i believe :)
I respect his concern since some video essayists cover disasters around the world with an exploitative almost colonial tone, so I apperciate him saying that even if he is very respectful wtih these
You know, in university I took a history of medicine class and in one of the lectures we talked about mercury and why people used to think it was medicine. I said, "people probably thought it looked cool," and I got few laughs (unintentionally), but I was serious. This blue powder is the same thing. People be like, "yo that'd weird...I should touch it!" and really, like no, no you shouldn't.
The Radium craze was very interesting too.
People actually thought it was good for their health. Companies that worked with radium in the mid 1910's listed it as a benefit of the job, and kept doing so even after it was discovered that radium is, in fact, horrible for their health.
>and really, like no you shouldn't
As children in the 1960s we played with the beautiful mercury pellets when a fever thermometer broke ...
@@youtube.commentator less emphasis that way though
@@youtube.commentator What the hell even is this?
i'm usually very cold about human tragedies, they are mostly just detailled statistics to me, even 9/11 when i was a kid or when learning about ww2.
but this little girl's fate is truly harrowing and saddened me
You did well for a non-speaker man! You always do! And it's really nice to have a couple seconds to say this kind of things in the end!
Thank you for all your videos!!
"If something that shouldnt sparkle, sparkles. Then its radioactive"
Sun Tzu , The Art of War
Twilight vampires are radioactive? :O
@@kodekristian both gives you cancer so i guess?
Moon?
@@allinmybackyard3988 its supposed to sparkle
@@kodekristian they don't glow though
I remember from school reading the reports about how the family was mesmerized by the cesium, how it was warm to the touch and glowed in the dark, etc. Also how the very young children would play around with it, possibly even putting it in their mouths. Its very sad how such a poor family would have found it to be such an amazing treasure, like a rare gem, but unknowingly causing their on demise
Own*
@@JTCBoss1 🤫
@@JTCBoss1 SHUT
After radium was discovered in 1898, people were greatly enamored by the glowing substance, and ascribed almost magical properties to it. It was (unjustifiably) touted as a miracle health product, until such uses revealed just how dangerous it was.
One has, by accident.
She was playing with Cesium 137 didn't washer hand before eating launch.
The funeral was done with a lead coffin under protest of local against with rocks.
It's the most tragedy death and funeral involving nuclear power I know.
Only losses in suffering to the guy who was keep alive for weeks, when in fact he was already long dead.
@Sci_Phile, impressive recount of the events. When I started seeing your other videos, I had no idea of what and educator and entertainer you had wrapped in those luscious locks.
Keep putting out great content. Thank you.
Never saw anyone telling this sad story with these much kindness and respect for the victims and their families, not even in Brazil. Thanks, Kyle ❤️
Plainly difficult did a good job on this one too
So they are all "victims"? I guess they are, but for their own lack of any scientific education or even a modest interest in gaining knowledge at all. This kind of people are the reason why you have to have warnings on your microwave related to cats. There is more in life than eat, shit and make kids. Sorry but this is simply natural selection. Fairytale powder that glows blue in the dark coming out of a sealed containment illegally dug out of a former radiologist's clinic. You can't make this shit up.
@@Strothy2 I'll definitely check that one tto, thanks!
One of the main reasons I respect the hell out of Kyle. His methods vary and are appropriate to the content he is covering. I don't think I've seen a bad video from him. One of my favorite follows. Stumbled across his channel with the "demon core".
@@bosoxno201 Don't tell me you're that guy from JCS...
This is like an old school fairy tale. Mesmerizing glowing dust that ruins people's lives.
What if old school fairy tales were just actual stories that really happened but people botched up the details so it doesn't sound as realistic anymore?
@@btat16 curiously a bunch of Greek mythology including how it's gods, rituals and tales are structured, has been discussed as possibly hinting at what the people needed to do to survive after the abrupt collapse of the bronze age civilizations
@@PatrickOliveras Indeed, a lot of mythology is straightforward cautionary tales elevated to mythical status. Cheating on a spouse invokes the wrath of a king or the wrath of some supernatural power, when in reality it's more likely to just result in the wrath of the one being cheated on. Many cultures have ritual cleanliness, farming practices, or magical explanations for things that have therapeutic medical effects.
Some have speculated that stories of dragons derived from people finding fossils in eroded cliffs, and we do know for certain that things like comets, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions were tied into mythology.
It is worth noting, though, that the stories developed over thousands of years. The Greek pantheon has elements evidenced over a thousand years before the Bronze Age Collapse. For example, the Trojan War was a battle from the Bronze Age Collapse, but Asclepius was added around 800BC as a character in that story, and around 500BC he was changed into a minor deity and his healing was associated with the snakes in his temples (and may have been tied into other snake healing beliefs in the region).
Less of a fairy tale and more of a HP Lovecraft type story. I could easily see someone twisting this into a syfy horror movie where instead of cancer or something people morph and twist into something inhuman, continuing to to grow more and more addicting to an ever decreasing amount of powder.
@@smiley4995 The Spice must flow
It is crazy how much I learn on RUclips about stuff like this. This sort of content is why I am here. Good job man.
As a Brazilian from down south i grew up hearing about this story, its great to see this documentary and finally hear all the details in depth thank you for this video.
Just hearing that the owner of the building just after being turned away just went "What happens next is on you..." and that the court KNEW that radioactive material was still there a year before. Great half life episode
"Knew" is a strong word... The justice system here in Brazil is slow, like painfully slow, so between filling a complaint with the court and having it go trough all legal procedures to have it even be considered, it can take actual years. So while it was written in a piece of paper, and someone definitely read it, it's dubious it even got to the hands of a judge at that point.
Also, it's easy to think everyone understood the risks of nuclear materials back then, but unlike the US, we were not directly involved with the whole drama of the cold war. The country was actually quite isolationist and would only open up in the begining of the 90s, and fears of all things nuclear was not that high. So when you add all those things together it's understandable, although not justifiable, how it happened. Honestly, as a Brazil, the most surprising thing in this whole mess was how the local authorities were willing to listen to the specialist about how to contain this whole mess before the federal government was involved. As anyone living here in Brazil knows local authorities can be quite the arrogant bullies and dismiss what a "civilian" says very easily in favor of what they think is their own brilliant idea.
@@Democlis Sad truth is this same scenario could have played out similarly in many parts of the developed world.
Apathetic and underfunded judicial systems are nothing new, as well as turf wars between various agencies.
It's a shame it happened in Brazil. It's a further shame people don't demand more from their governments.
@@Democlis It's just a shame how they reacted so well after the fact... when it would have saved so many lives and just been so much more easier. (of course that is easy to say though)
Frankly if they are using nuclear materials (in this case for radiation therapy) they should know the risks and procedures. It's a shame how writing this I still accept the fact that ignorance is a decent excuse in this case.
@@scalpingsnake after that incident they tieded up the procedure for dealing with medical equipment. Now you cannot vacatte a clinic without disposing of the equipment and to do so you need a couple of inspections during and after the disposal to make sure nothing dangerous was left behind.
@@Democlis I get that after incidents like this usually the procedure is corrected but I also hate that. It's not they realise what they need to do, it's more they realise that the consequences cost too much money.
I just hate this sort of thing sorry for badgering on.
I’m in a RUclips rabbit hole of the worst nuclear incidents in history and right now I’ve watched 5 of this man’s videos in a row
The videos are educational, you get to learn something new. I was not particularly interested in chemistry, but over time it grew on me.
Head over to Plainly Difficult now if you haven’t already.
Same
I started watching the Shrouded Hand video about Hisachi Ouchi and it lead me this Kyle.
ME TOO! I’m suddenly fascinated by radiation and associated tragedies. What is wrong with me‽?!
Honestly crazy how radioactive cesium 137 is and how so little can do so much damage.
Such a fascinating story. I've watched this multiple times. This needs to be a movie!!!
One of the reasons this makes me so sad is they thought they had found something other worldly something maybe magical or supernatural. Or even just something they had never seen before and they’re first thoughts were of gifts and sharing it with their friends and family. So heartbreaking. I can’t imagine the guilt
Tells whole lot about education problems in this area. There are no things that glow that are also safe. But regardless if you know what it is or not, when encountered something unknown, immediately search for consultation. Posting 'yo, I found blue glowing powder, what should I do with it?' on redit would had saved lives.
@@sk-sm9sh
Buddy, this was 1987, in Brazil. You know what technology was a novelty here at the time? _Colored televisions._
@@DinnerForkTongue that's 1 year after chernobyl. You don't need color tv. Listening to radio would suffice. But yeah I messed big thing suggesting redit lol, didn't noticed the date of this accident.
@@sk-sm9sh
See, normally you'd be right about the radio, but remember, this is Brazil, not the first world. People did not have the worldly knowledge to even comprehend Chernobyl and were more likely to blame it on the Devil than on anything remotely scientific. Plus, radios at the time were listened to for 3 things: music, radio soap operas, and football games. I'm not even kidding.
@@DinnerForkTongue I was gonna say "was soviet union 1st world?" but then I remembered that in Chernobyl people gathered to watch beautiful lights of ionized air above exploded nuclear power plant. I guess world before the internet was just heavily illiterate. And I don't think Brazil is that far 1st world - as for example as seen with this incident once it reached the right people the response was very effective.
Hey Kyle, love the hair. As a brazilian who learned about this disaster in school, I can say that the video made justice to the families affected by the incident and showed, once again, how we could avoid these tragedies by simply following safety instructions.
Oh, and as you expected, the names didnt sound quite right, but you did your best and thats what matters
Why the last part of the comment? Totally unnecessary taking into account that he knows already, and that he is not a Portuguese native speaker.
@@aicerg I think it's perfectly fine to point it out, he wasn't being rude in any way.
@@aicerg it's rare to hear a english speaker not butchering portuguese.
@@bsherman8236 it's rare to hear any person not butchering the pronounciation of a language they don't speak.
@@ArgentavisMagnificens Specially when we are talking about languages with totally different origins
You did a excellent job explaining the Ceasium-137 Incident, cheers from Brazil.
That bomb shell at the end about the owner's attempted recovery.. They would be responsible for "what would happen with the cesium bomb.". Wow. Your story telling is simply amazing.