Word: goiania
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Indeed, Brazilian authorities were dealing with the worst known episode of radioactive contamination in the West. In mid-September, a hapless junkyard dealer in Goiania (pop. 1.2 million), a city about 120 miles southwest of Brasilia, had pried open a lead cylinder containing a capsule of radioactive cesium 137, an isotope used for treating cancer. The canister had been sold to him as scrap from an abandoned local medical clinic. During the next six days, more than 200 townspeople were exposed to and at least one even ate the deadly bluish powder before Brazilian officials could contain the contamination...
...drama of the radioactive junkyard is far from over. Doctors will watch ! the survivors closely, particularly for signs of leukemia and skin cancer. The event may have other repercussions as well. Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Goiania have all shown that nuclear accidents can happen. Doctors are confident that they can meet medical needs in small incidents. However, larger accidents require more technology and resources than any one country can provide. "It would be irresponsible not to take advantage of what we, the Soviets and the Brazilians have learned," says Gale. "We should pool that knowledge." Grim practice...
...glittery stuff proved to be cesium-137, a radioactive isotope used in cancer-therapy equipment. The scrap collector found the casing a month ago in a spot where a radiotherapy clinic had once stood. Though months may pass before the final toll is known, the Goiania episode promises to be that rare nightmare, a radiation mishap that kills several people. The worst of these was last year's explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, which Soviet authorities acknowledge has claimed 31 lives...
...Goiania victims in most serious condition, including Leide, were flown to a naval hospital in Rio de Janeiro. There they are being treated by a core team of eight radiation specialists, including one from the U.S. and another from the Soviet Union. Bone-marrow transplants, which were conducted on Chernobyl survivors, are not being considered. Radiation can destroy the vital marrow, which produces among other things the white blood cells that help the body guard against infection, but some of the Goiania victims are so radioactive that new bone marrow would simply become contaminated. All patients are undergoing frequent decontamination...
Meanwhile, investigators armed with Geiger counters were searching for other contaminated areas in Goiania (pop. 1.2 million), in central Brazil. Authorities have checked more than 4,000 people for exposure and evacuated 30 families from their homes, many of which were near the junkyard...