*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.
"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."
@@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
@@joaofranco942 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.
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.
@@Lolyewmadbruoh 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. 😘
@@Lolyewmadbruohand you should read a book on empathy, or kindness, or even being a decent person. It's actually ironic that someone as unknowable as you about how to be a decent person is telling someone to read a book. If you'd read enough books you wouldn't leave that kind of comment
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
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.
@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
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
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.
@@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.
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.
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.
@@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".
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.
In my opinion, she and the doctor from the sanitary watch singlehandedly saved the city from turning into a south american version of Pripyat. The city was extremely lucky to that be found so early in a place which radioactivity was mostly unknown and ignored.
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.
@@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!"
@@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.
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.
@@geo_eatz4043 Appreciate the prayers bud. I'm no longer in the junk business but these folks make bank off wheeling and dealing scrap with little oversight even here in America.
@@anonim5052 Dosimeter won't do much good if someone shows up with old barrels containing stuff like Dioxin but thankfully the steel mills we send stuff to have radiation detectors to pick anything up.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
“… 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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 💔🧚♀️🪄✨
@@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.
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
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.
@@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.
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.
"...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...
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.
How in THE FUQ did a radiation therapy center shut down, and decide the best thing to do with THE source of radiation they used there would be to JUST LEAVE IN ON THE GROUND IN THE ABANDONED BUILDING?!
"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...
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
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
@@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?
My dad was actually growing up in Goiânia when this happened and he was one of the people tested for radiation. He said this video is very accurate and has his seal of approval!
"it's never broken" it can be, anything can break, bring multiple in case one of them does break because they can break. they're not made of plot armor, and they can break to NOT detect radiation either, id presume; not something id want to risk finding out, anyway, and you shouldn't either
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
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.
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.
@@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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
The poor girl thought she was playing with Fairy Dust, god that sent shivers down my spine as you said that, you executed this story so perfectly, GIVE US MORE PLEASE
This series already puts me on the verge tears almost every episode, but the second he began to talk about her I knew what it meant and it broke my heart as if all that I'd held back from previous entries had become a torrential outpour.
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.
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!
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.
I always thought the episode of Star Trek Next Generation where Data accidentally brings the radioactive metal into the small town (which then gets made into jewellery by the black smith) seemed quite far fetched. But I now suspect that the story was somewhat based on this real event.
There's an episode of House MD that I feel the same about. A scrap yard owner gives a piece of scrap to his son as a gift, but it turns out it was highly radioactive metal. I too always thought it was farfetched, that something that radioactive could end up in the trash. But now I realize it was likely based off this event.
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.
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
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
This series is such a double edged sword, on the one hand it's depressing as hell as more often than not the incidents always come at the cost of human life. On the other hand the essays are so well done and so informative and keep me interested the entire time that I can't help but look forward to the next video.
Also, the people who will be writing the rules in future are on youtube just like the rest of us. There's a good chance some of them will learn from this video and use the info to keep everyone safer in the future :D
I was a small kid in São Paulo when it all happened. I remember being terrified of radioactive medical instruments. Nearly two decades later, when I was about to get my first x-ray, this event rushed into my mind. And today, being remembered of it once again, I cried a little.
I can imagine. My dad told me about the stories his dad told about the first X-ray devices in doctor's offices before it was well known you should not irradiate people against a fosfor screen so a doctor could have a live look at what possibly was wrong with the patient. The idea that people were standing in front of an X-ray machine for more than 20 seconds while the doctor at the other side was looking at the screen and possibly getting hit with a very high dose as well is still mindboggling...
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
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.
As a Brazilian and a physicist, I really appreciate this video. That incident was terrible and shows what lack of information can cause. Nice work, Kyle!
And government incompetence. Because they already knew it was there. It was said at the end of the video. Why are none of the commenters talking about that?
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.
From a person from Goiânia, Thank you very much for this video. This is an excellent material about what happened. I was born at 1998, more than a decade after the incident, and in my experience we don't talk about it so much here. The old junkyard is now a Convention Center, and two of the terrains where people lived and worked are now empty, only with a heavy lay of concrete in the floor. There is no monuments or special discussions. I learned about the incident in school and by what my family told me, but it doesn't sound like the tragedy it was. I think it won't probably repeat, since now we have better protocols and law enforcement dispositives (although there is so much here to be done in education, infrastructure and politics), but I never heard about that last part - that the State knew since 1986 that we had an orphan source under our noses, and as long as I know they were never held responsible for this crime.
these stories are horrifying but i love listening to them, especially these ones about nuclear stuff. your content is crazy good, dude. deserving of the 2 and a half million subscribers all the way 🙏🙏
"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.
@@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.
Government is the most dangerous thing in existence, due to its ability to affect tens or hundreds of millions of people with a single decision, or indecision.
Not much of statement since radioactive materials are only dangerous if miss handled. Whereas any large group of humans in power will /always/ lead to atrocity.
God, could you imagine making an honest to goodness mistake. And being ostracized from society, responsible for the deaths of your closest loved ones, and the pain and suffering of over 100,000 people? Could you imagine having to live not only with the physical pain of a never ending burn, but the emotional pain as well? I was thinking about that as he started to talk about the man who lives 7 years after his wife died. I could not help but weep in pity. A tragic story, told beautifully. Thank you.
And it sounds like for years the landlord and the court officials who were actually responsible got off scot free. Like, those people knew about the cesium, had the power to do something about it, and actively chose to do the wrong thing. The exploiters who knew better get off, while the generous guy who made a mistake has his life ruined. It's fucked.
This is heartbreaking.. as soon as I heard that the little girl rubbed it all over her body I had to stop for a bit because I knew what would happen.. :/
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.
I can't imagine being the first person/doctor/scientist to really realize the scale of what's happening...it has to be a unique level of horror. Disasters of all kinds are traumatizing to witness. But nuclear disasters have such an insidious nature to them. Just think. If you were investigating this situation, or knew about the dangers of Cesium...and you were there in that junkyard when you saw people playing with a glowing blue substance. Shock doesn't even capture it.
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 saddest things to me are that only a FEW people needed to know about radiation, namely the people who worked with the medical equipment that used it. If only they had followed proper dismantling procedures, none of this would have happened. The other thing is that the stuff that caused so much suffering and a few deaths was intended to SAVE lives and PREVENT suffering.
Goiânia is in the southern hemisphere, so technically it was in the spring. I also noticed that the caesium source bore the international symbol for ionising radiation. This reinforces how important it is to ensure that people know what these symbols mean and that they not be used for unofficial purposes.
You mean ☢? That's a VERY well recognized symbol, I see people always associate it with nuclear power plants and/or nuclear bombs or radioactive waste, so most people KNOW what it means, I'd say it's as well recognized as the biohazard symbol ☣is. The fact that everyone didn't recognize a symbol that is SO ubiquitous is probably the problem. If everyone KNEW what the symbol meant, they'd be like, "Oh, shit! This is radioactive, and is thus best left alone and reported to hazard control authorities!"
they should update the symbol to have some skulls and bones on the yellow sides between triangles, im definitely not touching anything that has that on it
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.
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.
I like reading Wikipedia articles, and one day I was going through the page ‘lists of nuclear disasters and radiation incidents’, and this was by far the most upsetting one I found that day. What’s crazy is how many of the incidents on the list were connected to medical equipment-either from improperly used/calibrated radiation machines in hospitals, or from scavengers finding and breaking down medical equipment in junk yards or abandoned hospitals.
@@Marinealver since when is medical personnel supposed to handle closed facilities or scrapped equipment? That's not their responsibility handling scrap, healing humans are. Get a grip...
@@OmmerSyssel um. So you know, medical professionals' jobs include maintaining control of their radioactive material. Once it becomes scrap they've ALREADY fucked up. No one’s saying the medical professionals should be IN abandoned hospitals/closed facilities handling "scrapped equipment" looking for it or whatever, but they're not allowed to LEAVE it if they're not in control of the building They're even supposed to report to oversight committees when they move locations and bring their equipment If they move locations and LEAVE it there and don't tell the oversight committee (as happened here) they're VERY much at fault, by the expectations put on them by their own medical community and the nuclear safety commissions In this case the medical custodian of this source left it on a move (very bad), didn't report that to the commission he was supposed to (very bad), tried regaining control of it (good), and was prevented by a judge from doing so (very bad wtf) That court proceeding is apparently what started the rumor there was something valuable there, which lured in the scrappers
@@annedavis3340 It sounds like this case may be what STARTED the extra regulation. Like the xray machines in shoe stores in the 40s or 50s. You could try on shoes and watch how your bones reacted to the shoes. At the time no one knew how dangerous that could be. Then it was a known danger and regulated. The same can be said of putting lead in both paint and gasoline. It was the 80s before all gasoline was unleaded.
@@gryphenicedancer8796 no, it's not. I read the reports a month or so ago, the recommendations were that people need to continue reporting to the bodies as they are supposed to, and that more active contact should be made by that board to follow up Among other things If I recall correctly, huge pain day lots of brain fog right now
This story was huge in Japan at the time (most news about any radioactive stuff gets airtime over there) and actually inspired the mangaka who created Made In Abyss
I heard Made in Abyss was inspired by the video game series "Etrian Odyssey", so I guess it's both? In any case, as a brazillian it's pretty wild to hear that an anime I have watched was inspired by a brazillian incident.
Speaking of anime I don't recall seeing many mangas or such based on fukushima, one would think something of such magnitude happening in their backyard would garner more attention
"most news about any radioactive stuff gets airtime over there" Not surprising at all since freaking Godzilla is supposed to represent the Japanese people's fear of radiation and nuclear bombs. That is a fascinating factoid.
*''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
My thoughts keep going back to that physicist. The moment he realized what was going on must've been truly mind shattering. Such a powerful radiation source randomly showing up in the middle of a city, that's not something you'd ever think is even possible. And then imagine trying to call the authorities to explain this to them without sounding like a madman.
Imagine standing there and realizing just how many people might have been exposed, because WHO could possibly expect such an insane thing as that to just be there, either? He barely believed it himself, and he was the expert.
I don't think he was wearing protection himself. I could not imagine realizing that you are standing so close to something so incredibly dangerous, after it's too late. It's like realizing your standing by a volcano, after it starts pumping lava out on your foot.
@@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.
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.
This is such an interesting case. My parents were in college at that point, they say to this day some parts of Goiania are off limits due to the sheer amount of radiation. But on the flip side, the city now has one of the best majors in Medical Physics of latin america
The little girl broke my heart :( I literally can't even imagine being one the family members, or anyone in the town for that matter- the fear and loss and pain
@@coreym162 If there is one party that should get the blame, it's the people responsible for decommissioning the hospital it has been found in. I seriously cannot bring myself to hate on poor uneducated people trying to make a living, finding something they don't know what it is. But being corrupt and lazy enough to leave radiological equipment just lying around, that is just abhorrent.
Fully agree! These videos humanise the lives that are lost due to negligence of people that should NOT be negligent. Nuclear has been one of the most amazing discoveries that humans have made, however the responsibilities one has when dealing with such power can never be overstated. So many of these stories echo the same sentiment: company X was told their negligence would cost lives but they didn't care... We need more people to understand both how amazing and how dangerous nuclear can be.
@@btat16 i really like how he acknowledges that the negligence and human irresponsibility is the main cause for nuclear disaster, instead of the common "nuclear power is bad and dangerous" undertone echoed throughout media
I like to imagine that there are at least a couple of teachers who watch this channel that have played some of these for students. If I were a teacher I would jump at the opportunity. Then again,I do live in Texas and somebody would probably flip their sh*t. Then again...again,that might be equally likely anywhere.
@@sultanalkareemw6092 Nuclear is extremely misunderstood and antagonised even though it is one of the few options we have left for a sustainable future
Why have i never heard about this incident? This is crazy. I've heard about all the other incidents mentioned in this video, but not the one this video covers. Very interesting and very scary. Thank you for making this video. I have learned something new, and i think very important.
This event makes me so mad because it is one of the most EASILY avoidable disasters you can think of. You don't just leave radioactive hazards, you dispose of them properly for a reason!
Procrastinating, corruption, bureaucracy, "not my fault/busyness, so I'm not gonna do anything about it". That is what Brazil's is made of, at least 60%
Brazilian here, and one very much grateful for the honesty and respect of this documentary. One thing that I should point it out was the following "milk panic" that spread nationwide when the incident became public. Goiás is one of the largest producers of cattle in the country, and for a long while, people all over the country were scared of consuming meat and milk from sources they would suspect came from GO.
I was shockingly surprised when he mentioned Brazil, I was sure latin america was not going to make it in this series haha I'm from Argentina and I've never heard of this incident.
@@rickybevi some brazilians don't too. Recently a lot of podcasts and youtube channels decided to make content on it, and it was shocking that a lot of people just found out about it. I'm not from Goias, bue that was a traumatic event
@@hadesoneiroi same, am not from goias but this was one of the first tragedies we heard about in science class just to hammer home the danger of radiation. I love that now i can point to this video to people
Thanks for your research and such important historical video. Brazilians have been going through the whole educational system (including “elite” schools) without receiving this information. I was a teenager when this tragedy happened , all the country followed those news day after day in astonishment and terror. The video is 100% faithful. Governments hide these stories because they show how lame their systems are and what consequences this can bring to the people.
I didn't recognize the name you used for the radiation meter, and the auto-captions spelled it horribly. For those looking for it, it is spelled "scintillometer". It is similar in function to a Geiger counter, but Geiger counters use a Geiger-Muller tube. A scintillometer uses crystals. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of details there, I hadn't even heard of a scintillometer until this video. I appreciate that you used the name of the device they used, rather than just assuming all radiation is measured with a Geiger counter. I learned that the thing exists today.
Having seen that glow (cherenkov effect) as a fuel handler in person, jogging fuel assemblies out from a freshly shutdown core into the spent fuel pit... i can see how it attracted people. Its the most curiously beautiful thing ive seen.
@@JimboJuice Water is one of the most common types of radiation shields. It takes roughly 13.8 feet of water to reduce gamma radiation by a factor of a billion. You could swim in a spent fuel pool and be perfectly fine.
@@williamdavis8035 Do not, ever, do, that, period. Even if it is dispersed if a single particle gets attached to you (and many will) you are very screwed
I'm a teacher. I plan on sharing this video with my students - it is extremely well made, respectful of the victims and everyone affected, and perfectly encapsulates the serious nature of radioactive material. Thank you for the hard work!
@@boyankovachev7982 In American English it's Cesium; in the rest of the world's English, it's Caesium, which is also the official spelling according to IUPAC - the official international body of chemists.
@@rmsgrey Okay. Thanks. I love learning new things. My point was about the OP writing it as Cesio. Still it's really great to know. One love, brutha. 💙
As a Brazilian, I appreciate your honest attempt at pronouncing all these names! This happened before my time, so it was nice to get an in-depth look at this tragedy!
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
"I fell in love with the glow of death" was a phrase said by Odesson Alves Ferreira that became very famous. I always remember this when I see something about the cesium 137 accident. excellent video, by the way, very well explained and with great materials.
Omg that poor little girl, that's heartbreaking to think about how something can look so harmless and be so dangerous. My heart goes out to all of the people affected by this.
@@MrCmon113 The trouble is that it does indeed look harmful - to people who know a thing or two about what radioactive materials can look like (EI, glowing blue = stay away) Unfortunately that little girl didnt know that, likely had absolutely no way of learning that, and clearly thought it was simply a strange glowing powder. Children are often naive, the idea that it may have been in any way harmful likely never crossed her mind.
I remember my geography teacher speaking to my class about this accident when I was little, I guess I was too young to understand the scale and impact of this accident in my own country. Great video as always Kyle.
I didnt know about this until I found this video. They didnt teach about it at all in schools, but its probably due to poor education also, brazilian homestuck? Holy shit you do *not* find that everyday. Nice trollsona btw
@@superplaylists1616 in mine the teacher talked about it but at first i thought he was joking, due to the way he talked about it and how the story went
![Jack Harlow - Hello Miss Johnson [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q86_nlRoIGw/mqdefault.jpg)
*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
“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
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...
"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
@@joaofranco942 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?
@@lunarkomet 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
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
@@Lolyewmadbruoh 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
@@Lolyewmadbruoh 99.9% of the worlds population have no idea how to identify radioactive matter. Your comment is totally void of empathy.
@@Lolyewmadbruohand you should read a book on empathy, or kindness, or even being a decent person. It's actually ironic that someone as unknowable as you about how to be a decent person is telling someone to read a book. If you'd read enough books you wouldn't leave that kind of comment
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.
"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
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.
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.
Yeah they some dumb asses 😂
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!
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
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.
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.
"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.
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
In my opinion, she and the doctor from the sanitary watch singlehandedly saved the city from turning into a south american version of Pripyat. The city was extremely lucky to that be found so early in a place which radioactivity was mostly unknown and ignored.
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.
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.
Buy dosimetr bro
May god protect you bro everyday at work and forbid that something like that happens to you 🙏🏻
@@geo_eatz4043 Appreciate the prayers bud. I'm no longer in the junk business but these folks make bank off wheeling and dealing scrap with little oversight even here in America.
@@anonim5052 Dosimeter won't do much good if someone shows up with old barrels containing stuff like Dioxin but thankfully the steel mills we send stuff to have radiation detectors to pick anything up.
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
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
"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 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
@@Dirty09that's called an indirect death yk
@@nocturn9x no i don't
@@Dirty09 now you do
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. 🇵🇹💕
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
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.
A lot of people has commented.
She unknowingly sacrificed herself and saved everyone else.
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.
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 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
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.
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.
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..
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?
the urge to get a radiation detector has only gone up while revisiting this fascinating series, Thank you for making it
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
"...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.
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.
If I were confronted with this blue-glowing powder and hadn't watched these videos..
I might have sniffed the stuff xD (..just kidding)
"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
How in THE FUQ did a radiation therapy center shut down, and decide the best thing to do with THE source of radiation they used there would be to JUST LEAVE IN ON THE GROUND IN THE ABANDONED BUILDING?!
"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...
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?
My dad was actually growing up in Goiânia when this happened and he was one of the people tested for radiation. He said this video is very accurate and has his seal of approval!
I’ll tell you all one thing. A radiation meter is NEVER broken. Your heart just wants to believe it is
False
@@YunxiaoChu uhhhhhhh no sir it ain’t. lol
it *can* be broken, but it probably isnt so gtfo if its going crazy ‼️
Not great, not terrible
"it's never broken" it can be, anything can break, bring multiple in case one of them does break because they can break. they're not made of plot armor, and they can break to NOT detect radiation either, id presume; not something id want to risk finding out, anyway, and you shouldn't either
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.
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.
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.
🙏🙏🙏
@@bernardeugeniowe've been burning witches for centuries. A magic powder should be off-putting to anyone 😒
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.
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...
The poor girl thought she was playing with Fairy Dust, god that sent shivers down my spine as you said that, you executed this story so perfectly, GIVE US MORE PLEASE
This series already puts me on the verge tears almost every episode, but the second he began to talk about her I knew what it meant and it broke my heart as if all that I'd held back from previous entries had become a torrential outpour.
The blue glow seemed otherworldly, something that hardly anyone who have seen it survives to tell the story. Its the glow of death.
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.
I always thought the episode of Star Trek Next Generation where Data accidentally brings the radioactive metal into the small town (which then gets made into jewellery by the black smith) seemed quite far fetched. But I now suspect that the story was somewhat based on this real event.
There's an episode of House MD that I feel the same about. A scrap yard owner gives a piece of scrap to his son as a gift, but it turns out it was highly radioactive metal. I too always thought it was farfetched, that something that radioactive could end up in the trash. But now I realize it was likely based off this event.
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?
"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"
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‽?!
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
This series is such a double edged sword, on the one hand it's depressing as hell as more often than not the incidents always come at the cost of human life. On the other hand the essays are so well done and so informative and keep me interested the entire time that I can't help but look forward to the next video.
yeah, I feel guilty that I enjoy this series so much
Also, the people who will be writing the rules in future are on youtube just like the rest of us. There's a good chance some of them will learn from this video and use the info to keep everyone safer in the future :D
I was a small kid in São Paulo when it all happened. I remember being terrified of radioactive medical instruments. Nearly two decades later, when I was about to get my first x-ray, this event rushed into my mind. And today, being remembered of it once again, I cried a little.
I can imagine. My dad told me about the stories his dad told about the first X-ray devices in doctor's offices before it was well known you should not irradiate people against a fosfor screen so a doctor could have a live look at what possibly was wrong with the patient.
The idea that people were standing in front of an X-ray machine for more than 20 seconds while the doctor at the other side was looking at the screen and possibly getting hit with a very high dose as well is still mindboggling...
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
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.
As a Brazilian and a physicist, I really appreciate this video. That incident was terrible and shows what lack of information can cause. Nice work, Kyle!
nice to see another Brazilian here
Yeah, too bad people started playing with it and giving it out like they were retarded children.
@@LongWarEnjoyer why all the hate and xenophobia? lol
@@LongWarEnjoyer You must be fun at parties
And government incompetence. Because they already knew it was there. It was said at the end of the video. Why are none of the commenters talking about that?
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.
From a person from Goiânia,
Thank you very much for this video. This is an excellent material about what happened.
I was born at 1998, more than a decade after the incident, and in my experience we don't talk about it so much here. The old junkyard is now a Convention Center, and two of the terrains where people lived and worked are now empty, only with a heavy lay of concrete in the floor. There is no monuments or special discussions. I learned about the incident in school and by what my family told me, but it doesn't sound like the tragedy it was.
I think it won't probably repeat, since now we have better protocols and law enforcement dispositives (although there is so much here to be done in education, infrastructure and politics), but I never heard about that last part - that the State knew since 1986 that we had an orphan source under our noses, and as long as I know they were never held responsible for this crime.
do you think a court is going to indict themselves?
@@toomanyaccounts
If Brazil were a serious country, a Federal court would judge the State/Province guilty. But there is not the slightest chance.
‘98 gang
God bless Brasil... I've been there 3 times, and consider them the high points of my life...
@@Q2Cockatiel o "tribunal" em questão só move processos para liberar bandidos e prender pessoas que discordam deles.
these stories are horrifying but i love listening to them, especially these ones about nuclear stuff. your content is crazy good, dude. deserving of the 2 and a half million subscribers all the way 🙏🙏
Because of this series and HBO Chernobyl, *"blue glow"* always sends chills down my spine
It makes me think of "tickling the tail of the dragon", see also: the demon core.
I was born in Goiânia, and i agree with you 100%
If it glows without electricity, safe to asume its either radioactive or extremley toxic
@@jesusramirezromo2037 except for bio fluorescent
This... puts some content I want to make into a whole new light. Literally.
"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.
19:45 Just goes to show: The only thing more dangerous than radioactive material is governmental apathy
Government is the most dangerous thing in existence, due to its ability to affect tens or hundreds of millions of people with a single decision, or indecision.
Apathy is death, worse than death
Not much of statement since radioactive materials are only dangerous if miss handled. Whereas any large group of humans in power will /always/ lead to atrocity.
@@salt-emoji so it’s still a statement then. You basically just worded it differently.
@@salt-emoji "only dangerous if mishandled" is the real non-statement here.
Wow, this right here is the one that made me cry for real. I've been binging your videos and THIS is the one that brought me over the edge.
God, could you imagine making an honest to goodness mistake. And being ostracized from society, responsible for the deaths of your closest loved ones, and the pain and suffering of over 100,000 people? Could you imagine having to live not only with the physical pain of a never ending burn, but the emotional pain as well? I was thinking about that as he started to talk about the man who lives 7 years after his wife died. I could not help but weep in pity. A tragic story, told beautifully. Thank you.
No way id have made it 7 years id end it so fast
It's not directly his fault but yes I wouldn't have made it through that... :(
that got to you too, me too
And it sounds like for years the landlord and the court officials who were actually responsible got off scot free. Like, those people knew about the cesium, had the power to do something about it, and actively chose to do the wrong thing. The exploiters who knew better get off, while the generous guy who made a mistake has his life ruined. It's fucked.
You understood the complete pathos of this event. Dreadful all around.
This is heartbreaking.. as soon as I heard that the little girl rubbed it all over her body I had to stop for a bit because I knew what would happen.. :/
That was truly horrific.
"heartbreaking"
The little girl accidentally ate it. A guy rubbed it in his *ahem* before... "hugging" his wife.
Yeah, hearing what she did with it, it was hard to listen to knowing what would happen because of it. Poor girl. :(
@@pedroc.b.3874Really? 😦
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 can't imagine being the first person/doctor/scientist to really realize the scale of what's happening...it has to be a unique level of horror. Disasters of all kinds are traumatizing to witness. But nuclear disasters have such an insidious nature to them.
Just think. If you were investigating this situation, or knew about the dangers of Cesium...and you were there in that junkyard when you saw people playing with a glowing blue substance. Shock doesn't even capture it.
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 saddest things to me are that only a FEW people needed to know about radiation, namely the people who worked with the medical equipment that used it. If only they had followed proper dismantling procedures, none of this would have happened. The other thing is that the stuff that caused so much suffering and a few deaths was intended to SAVE lives and PREVENT suffering.
Goiânia is in the southern hemisphere, so technically it was in the spring.
I also noticed that the caesium source bore the international symbol for ionising radiation. This reinforces how important it is to ensure that people know what these symbols mean and that they not be used for unofficial purposes.
You mean ☢? That's a VERY well recognized symbol, I see people always associate it with nuclear power plants and/or nuclear bombs or radioactive waste, so most people KNOW what it means, I'd say it's as well recognized as the biohazard symbol ☣is.
The fact that everyone didn't recognize a symbol that is SO ubiquitous is probably the problem. If everyone KNEW what the symbol meant, they'd be like, "Oh, shit! This is radioactive, and is thus best left alone and reported to hazard control authorities!"
they should update the symbol to have some skulls and bones on the yellow sides between triangles, im definitely not touching anything that has that on it
@@oui2611 Have a skull in the center of the the three rotating semicircles
@@oui2611 They did. Look up the current symbol
Actually, there's no winter in this region of Brazil, it's sunny throughout the year.
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 actually had to stop this video and cry, it's so unbelievably tragic.
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
I like reading Wikipedia articles, and one day I was going through the page ‘lists of nuclear disasters and radiation incidents’, and this was by far the most upsetting one I found that day. What’s crazy is how many of the incidents on the list were connected to medical equipment-either from improperly used/calibrated radiation machines in hospitals, or from scavengers finding and breaking down medical equipment in junk yards or abandoned hospitals.
When Doctors are contributing to the problem instead of the cure.
@@Marinealver since when is medical personnel supposed to handle closed facilities or scrapped equipment?
That's not their responsibility handling scrap, healing humans are.
Get a grip...
@@OmmerSyssel um. So you know, medical professionals' jobs include maintaining control of their radioactive material. Once it becomes scrap they've ALREADY fucked up. No one’s saying the medical professionals should be IN abandoned hospitals/closed facilities handling "scrapped equipment" looking for it or whatever, but they're not allowed to LEAVE it if they're not in control of the building
They're even supposed to report to oversight committees when they move locations and bring their equipment
If they move locations and LEAVE it there and don't tell the oversight committee (as happened here) they're VERY much at fault, by the expectations put on them by their own medical community and the nuclear safety commissions
In this case the medical custodian of this source left it on a move (very bad), didn't report that to the commission he was supposed to (very bad), tried regaining control of it (good), and was prevented by a judge from doing so (very bad wtf)
That court proceeding is apparently what started the rumor there was something valuable there, which lured in the scrappers
@@annedavis3340 It sounds like this case may be what STARTED the extra regulation.
Like the xray machines in shoe stores in the 40s or 50s. You could try on shoes and watch how your bones reacted to the shoes. At the time no one knew how dangerous that could be. Then it was a known danger and regulated.
The same can be said of putting lead in both paint and gasoline. It was the 80s before all gasoline was unleaded.
@@gryphenicedancer8796 no, it's not. I read the reports a month or so ago, the recommendations were that people need to continue reporting to the bodies as they are supposed to, and that more active contact should be made by that board to follow up
Among other things
If I recall correctly, huge pain day lots of brain fog right now
This story was huge in Japan at the time (most news about any radioactive stuff gets airtime over there) and actually inspired the mangaka who created Made In Abyss
To think that Made In Abyss of all anime was inspired by a real-life incident....
I heard Made in Abyss was inspired by the video game series "Etrian Odyssey", so I guess it's both?
In any case, as a brazillian it's pretty wild to hear that an anime I have watched was inspired by a brazillian incident.
@@shyguy1932 Etrian Odyssey looks great.
I think they also referred to nuclear stuff but I don't remember well
Speaking of anime I don't recall seeing many mangas or such based on fukushima, one would think something of such magnitude happening in their backyard would garner more attention
"most news about any radioactive stuff gets airtime over there"
Not surprising at all since freaking Godzilla is supposed to represent the Japanese people's fear of radiation and nuclear bombs. That is a fascinating factoid.
This video literally gives me goosebumps all over my body. It’s chilling.
*''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 ?
My thoughts keep going back to that physicist. The moment he realized what was going on must've been truly mind shattering. Such a powerful radiation source randomly showing up in the middle of a city, that's not something you'd ever think is even possible. And then imagine trying to call the authorities to explain this to them without sounding like a madman.
Imagine standing there and realizing just how many people might have been exposed, because WHO could possibly expect such an insane thing as that to just be there, either? He barely believed it himself, and he was the expert.
That's definitely one of those "oh ****" moments with the weight of a few elephants, when you realize the enormity of the situation.
I don't think he was wearing protection himself. I could not imagine realizing that you are standing so close to something so incredibly dangerous, after it's too late. It's like realizing your standing by a volcano, after it starts pumping lava out on your foot.
I can only think what he would have said to himself when realizing what was happening: "caralho, caralho!"
@@detectordegados5292 When the first detector went off: "que porra é essa?". When the second one went off: "puta que pariu"
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!
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.
This is such an interesting case. My parents were in college at that point, they say to this day some parts of Goiania are off limits due to the sheer amount of radiation. But on the flip side, the city now has one of the best majors in Medical Physics of latin america
The little girl broke my heart :( I literally can't even imagine being one the family members, or anyone in the town for that matter- the fear and loss and pain
I know :/ Irresponsible thieves got her killed :/
@@coreym162 If there is one party that should get the blame, it's the people responsible for decommissioning the hospital it has been found in. I seriously cannot bring myself to hate on poor uneducated people trying to make a living, finding something they don't know what it is. But being corrupt and lazy enough to leave radiological equipment just lying around, that is just abhorrent.
@@NeedForMadnessSVK then it'd actually be on the police and the greedy land owner. The hospital people tried to come get the machine.
This series should be required viewing for Chemistry classes, and definitely for Nuclear Science majors.
Agreed!! These are so entertaining and informational!
Fully agree! These videos humanise the lives that are lost due to negligence of people that should NOT be negligent. Nuclear has been one of the most amazing discoveries that humans have made, however the responsibilities one has when dealing with such power can never be overstated. So many of these stories echo the same sentiment: company X was told their negligence would cost lives but they didn't care... We need more people to understand both how amazing and how dangerous nuclear can be.
@@btat16 i really like how he acknowledges that the negligence and human irresponsibility is the main cause for nuclear disaster, instead of the common "nuclear power is bad and dangerous" undertone echoed throughout media
I like to imagine that there are at least a couple of teachers who watch this channel that have played some of these for students. If I were a teacher I would jump at the opportunity. Then again,I do live in Texas and somebody would probably flip their sh*t. Then again...again,that might be equally likely anywhere.
@@sultanalkareemw6092 Nuclear is extremely misunderstood and antagonised even though it is one of the few options we have left for a sustainable future
Why have i never heard about this incident? This is crazy. I've heard about all the other incidents mentioned in this video, but not the one this video covers. Very interesting and very scary. Thank you for making this video. I have learned something new, and i think very important.
This event makes me so mad because it is one of the most EASILY avoidable disasters you can think of.
You don't just leave radioactive hazards, you dispose of them properly for a reason!
Procrastinating, corruption, bureaucracy, "not my fault/busyness, so I'm not gonna do anything about it". That is what Brazil's is made of, at least 60%
@@TJChagas that's most of the world not just brazil
Not to mention the seller should have realized it was well contained for a reason. His greed got these people killed.
Gotta be honest, if I was a janitor, I don’t think I’d be too confident in my ability to handle potentially dangerous radioactive hazards.
Brazilian here, and one very much grateful for the honesty and respect of this documentary.
One thing that I should point it out was the following "milk panic" that spread nationwide when the incident became public. Goiás is one of the largest producers of cattle in the country, and for a long while, people all over the country were scared of consuming meat and milk from sources they would suspect came from GO.
caramba eu não sabia disso, mas faz sentido o medo dos br
As a Brazilian that loves the “half life stories” series, I’ve been waiting for this video soooo long!
Yes.
I was shockingly surprised when he mentioned Brazil, I was sure latin america was not going to make it in this series haha I'm from Argentina and I've never heard of this incident.
@@rickybevi some brazilians don't too. Recently a lot of podcasts and youtube channels decided to make content on it, and it was shocking that a lot of people just found out about it. I'm not from Goias, bue that was a traumatic event
@@hadesoneiroi same, am not from goias but this was one of the first tragedies we heard about in science class just to hammer home the danger of radiation. I love that now i can point to this video to people
É nois!
Thanks for your research and such important historical video. Brazilians have been going through the whole educational system (including “elite” schools) without receiving this information. I was a teenager when this tragedy happened , all the country followed those news day after day in astonishment and terror. The video is 100% faithful. Governments hide these stories because they show how lame their systems are and what consequences this can bring to the people.
I didn't recognize the name you used for the radiation meter, and the auto-captions spelled it horribly. For those looking for it, it is spelled "scintillometer". It is similar in function to a Geiger counter, but Geiger counters use a Geiger-Muller tube. A scintillometer uses crystals. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of details there, I hadn't even heard of a scintillometer until this video.
I appreciate that you used the name of the device they used, rather than just assuming all radiation is measured with a Geiger counter. I learned that the thing exists today.
Nice. learned something new as well
Having seen that glow (cherenkov effect) as a fuel handler in person, jogging fuel assemblies out from a freshly shutdown core into the spent fuel pit... i can see how it attracted people. Its the most curiously beautiful thing ive seen.
just never take in a dip in the water that has that glow
@@toomanyaccounts i dont think it would actually be harmful to you if in water but i aint sure
@@JimboJuice bro i forgot i even made this comment,and i did hear it in some videos but my memory may just be bad
@@JimboJuice Water is one of the most common types of radiation shields. It takes roughly 13.8 feet of water to reduce gamma radiation by a factor of a billion. You could swim in a spent fuel pool and be perfectly fine.
@@williamdavis8035 Do not, ever, do, that, period. Even if it is dispersed if a single particle gets attached to you (and many will) you are very screwed
I'm a teacher. I plan on sharing this video with my students - it is extremely well made, respectful of the victims and everyone affected, and perfectly encapsulates the serious nature of radioactive material. Thank you for the hard work!
Great topic! Here in Brazil, the Cesio-137 case is explained in highschool and radiology courses.
Teacher here. Can confirm. Every pedagogue and science teacher tells this story every year
Sorry, don't wanna seem rude, but in English its Cesium.
One love
@@boyankovachev7982 In American English it's Cesium; in the rest of the world's English, it's Caesium, which is also the official spelling according to IUPAC - the official international body of chemists.
@@rmsgrey Okay. Thanks. I love learning new things. My point was about the OP writing it as Cesio. Still it's really great to know.
One love, brutha. 💙
I am so glad they teach this incident in school in Brazil. The young generation needs to learn what to stay away from or ignore completly.
As a Brazilian, I appreciate your honest attempt at pronouncing all these names! This happened before my time, so it was nice to get an in-depth look at this tragedy!
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
Such a fascinating story. I've watched this multiple times. This needs to be a movie!!!
"I fell in love with the glow of death" was a phrase said by Odesson Alves Ferreira that became very famous. I always remember this when I see something about the cesium 137 accident.
excellent video, by the way, very well explained and with great materials.
Who asked?
yea id definitely stare at it for awhile lol
@@measlesplease1266 what's the need?
@@measlesplease1266 didn't know questions were needed in a public comment section now lol
@@measlesplease1266 back up, i am the one who asked
Omg that poor little girl, that's heartbreaking to think about how something can look so harmless and be so dangerous. My heart goes out to all of the people affected by this.
How tf does it look harmless? It glows.
@@MrCmon113 The trouble is that it does indeed look harmful - to people who know a thing or two about what radioactive materials can look like (EI, glowing blue = stay away) Unfortunately that little girl didnt know that, likely had absolutely no way of learning that, and clearly thought it was simply a strange glowing powder. Children are often naive, the idea that it may have been in any way harmful likely never crossed her mind.
I remember my geography teacher speaking to my class about this accident when I was little, I guess I was too young to understand the scale and impact of this accident in my own country. Great video as always Kyle.
Nice Troll pfp!
I didnt know about this until I found this video. They didnt teach about it at all in schools, but its probably due to poor education
also, brazilian homestuck? Holy shit you do *not* find that everyday. Nice trollsona btw
@@superplaylists1616 mano, eu tb tive aula sobre esse caso, ta locao
@@superplaylists1616 in mine the teacher talked about it but at first i thought he was joking, due to the way he talked about it and how the story went
This really puts into perspective just how destructive a mere handful of radioactive material can actually be.