Radiation sources: Lessons from Goiania

On 13 September 1987, a shielded, strongly radioactive caesium-137 medical source was removed from its housing in a teletherapy machine. Tne machine had been left in a clinic abandoned by the Instituto Goiano de Radioterapia in Goiania, the capital of the State of Goias in Central Brazil. By 18 September, the source assembly had been broken out of its protective shielding and sold to a scrap metal dealer. On 21 September, the source capsule, previously damaged, was broken open. Fragments of the source were distributed to other areas of the city. Many people were directly irradiated by the source and were externally and internally contaminated by caesium-137. Several persons became ill and sought medical attention. Finally, on 28 September, a medical physician in Goiania recognized the characteristic symptoms of radiation overexposure. A physicist who was consulted the next day detected high radiation levels and promptly notified Goias health authorities, who then contacted Brazil's National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN). The Goias officials then evacuated the affected areas and began to identify those persons who had been seriously exposed. CNEN immediately sent an advance team to Goiania to help treat affected persons and to control contaminated areas. CNEN mobilized substantial additional resources and an emergency response centre was set up to co-ordinate activities. (Brazil informed the IAEA of the emergency and requested assistance under the new Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency. The IAEA arranged for assistance by US medical experts, for assistance from IAEA technical co-operation experts and the provision of dosimeters, and for the provision of monitoring equipment from France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Separately, Argentina, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States provided other experts and equipment directly to Brazil.)