Goiânia accident
 A photograph of the radioactive source involved in the 1987 accident. | |
| Date | September 13, 1987 |
|---|---|
| Location | Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil |
| Coordinates | 16°40′29″S 49°15′51″W / 16.6746°S 49.2641°W |
| Type | Radiation accident |
| Cause | Radiation source left unsecured by authorities |
| Participants |
|
| Outcome | INES Level 5 (accident with wider consequences) |
| Deaths | 4 |
| Non-fatal injuries | 249 contaminated |
The Goiânia accident was a radiation accident that happened on September 13, 1987, in Goiânia, in the Brazilian state of Goiás. A forgotten radioactive source was taken from an abandoned hospital in the city. At the end it was sold to someone doing waste recycling. The person cut it open, and took out the radioactive material. The people handling it did not know abot the dangers. In the end, four people died. About 112,000 people were examined for radioactive contamination and 249 of them were found to have been contaminated. pArts of the city still have high levels of radiation. On the International Nuclear Event Scale the event was rated as a level 5 incident; in total there are 7 levels. There were simiar cases such as the 1962 Mexico City radiation accident, the Ciudad Juárez cobalt-60 contamination incident of 1984 and the Samut Prakan radiation accident of 2000, in Thailand.
The accident showed that warning people is important. There were no warning signs on the hospital building, from where the source was stolen.
