Goiana

Goiania Incident

By Zeile
  • National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN) Created

    National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN) Created
    CNEN is created to develop nuclear energy in Brazil as well as create strong controls over export of radioactive materials
  • Instituto Goiano de Radioterapia built

    IGR built in Goiania, licensed by CNEN
  • Caesium-137 Teletherapy Unit

    Caesium-137 Teletherapy Unit
    Unit purchased by Instituto Goiano de Radioterapia
  • Period: to

    Switch from Stratocracy to Democracy

    End of 21 year military regime in 1985 and election of a democratic president in Brazil
  • Instituto Goiano de Radioterapia

    Instituto Goiano de Radioterapia
    IGR moves to new location, leaves behind a caesium-137 radiation therapy device
  • Court Dispute of Abandoned Site

    Court Dispute of Abandoned Site
    Institute and owner of site go to court to dispute what should happen to site. It's known and stated in court of abandoned radioactive material still on site.
  • Prevention of Removal of Radioactive Material

    Prevention of Removal of Radioactive Material
    The court uses police force to prevent one of the owners of IGR from removing radioactive material from abandoned site. The court then puts a security guard to protect the site and hazardous material.
  • Theft of abandoned Teletherapy unit

    Theft of abandoned Teletherapy unit
    Two men hear of valuable equipment left and go into abandoned IGR site and steal the Cesium-137 unit. They take unit by wheelbarrow to one of the men's homes and dismantle it with the intention to sell for scrap.
  • Period: to

    Two men get sick

    The two men experience vomiting, diarrhea, and one of them has burns on his hand. One man goes to clinic and is diagnosed with an allergic reaction to bad food.
  • Parts Sold to Junkyard

    Parts Sold to Junkyard
    They sell parts of the unit to a junkyard and the junkyard owner, Devair Ferreira, who saw the source capsule glowed blue and thought it might be valuable or supernatural. Takes it home and several people visit and pieces were taken of the glowing blue powder.
  • Devair Ferreira's wife gets sick

  • 6 Year Old Girl is Contaminated

    Devair Ferrera's brother Ivo brings some of the powder home where his 6 year old daughter plays with it, puts it on her body and later eats an egg and contaminated the egg with the cesium and ingests it.
  • Devair Ferreira sells scrap metal

    Devair Ferreira sells scrap metal
    Devair sells the contaminated scrap metal to another junkyard
  • Gabriela Maria Ferreira

    Gabriela Maria Ferreira
    Devair Ferreira's wife, Gabriela, notices everyone getting sick after contact with this powder and brings some in a plastic bag to the Tropical Diseases Hospital where people exposed to the radiation were being treated for a possible tropical disease.
  • Containment

    Containment
    A medical physicist borrows a scintillation monitor and identifies the powder to be highly radioactive. IGR is contacted to figure out source of radiation. Goiania Olympic stadium is used as a staging area for screening and isolating patients.
  • 249 People Significantly Contaminated

    249 People Significantly Contaminated
    249 people were found to have significant levels of radioactive contamination. 129 had internal contamination.
  • Period: to

    Clean up

    Top soil was removed from several sites, houses were demolished including the junkyard owner's. Many people had to relocate or have portions of their house removed. Prussian Blue was used as an antidote for the people with internal contamination.
  • Period: to

    Four Deaths

    Four died as a result of being contaminated: Admilson Alves de Souza (18), an employee at Devair Ferreira's junkyard that helped dismantle the unit. Received 5.3 Gy.
    Leide das Neves Ferreira (6), Ivo Ferreira's daughter who ingested the cesium, received 6 Gy.
    Gabriela Maria Ferreira (37), Devair Ferreira's wife, received 5.7 Gy
    Israel Baptista dos Santos (22), another employee of Devair, received 4.5 Gy