Fascinating Horror - On the 13th of September 1987, in the city of Goiânia in Brazil, two men entered the abandoned Instituto Goiano de Radioterapia hospital.
Their intent was to steal valuable scrap metal and machine parts.
They would be successful in this goal, but in doing so would cause one of the world's worst radioactive contamination incidents.
The hospital (a private radiotherapy Institute) had been abandoned in 1985 when operations moved to new purpose-built premises.
While most of the equipment was taken along for the move a radiotherapy unit containing a capsule of radioactive caesium chloride salt remained behind.
Authorities were aware that this valuable and dangerous piece of equipment remained within the abandoned building, but could not arrange for its removal due to a dispute between the owner of the building and the management of the hospital.
The property was monitored by security guards, but on the 13th of September 1987 the guard who was due to work that day called in sick.
In a grimly amusing footnote his reason for doing so was that he wished to take his family to a special screening of the comedy adventure film Herbie Goes Bananas.
In any event no guard was present when Roberto dos Santos Alves and Wagner Moto Pereira entered the hospital, disassembled the radiotherapy unit and carted the radioactive source away in a wheelbarrow.
The men knew only that the source was valuable and had no idea that exposure to the radioactive material within would be harmful to their health.
The pair took the source to Roberto's home and began to dismantle it as best they were able.
Soon both men started to suffer symptoms of radiation poisoning including vomiting, diarrhea, and dizziness.
Burns developed on their hands where they had come into contact with the source.
Nonetheless the men continued to disassemble the capsule.
Two days later, on September 15th, Wagner visited a local clinic and was incorrectly diagnosed with food poisoning.
This was unsurprising, as staff of the small clinic had no experience at all of dealing with ailments caused by radiation.
Roberto meanwhile continued working on the capsule.
On September 16th he punched a hole in it with a screwdriver and noted a pulsing blue light emanating from within.
Intrigued, Roberto used the tip of the screwdriver to scoop out some of the radioactive salt which he then attempted to set on fire, thinking it might be gunpowder.
Fortunately he was not able to ignite the salt.
Another two days passed.
On September 18th Roberto sold the capsule to scrapyard owner Devair Alves Ferriera who took the blue glow of the radioactive salts to be a sign that the canister had magical properties.
Completely unaware of the true nature of the glow, he took the canister to his home and invited numerous friends and family to come and look at it over the course of several days.
On September 21st one of Devair's friends succeeded in digging out yet more of the radioactive material from inside the canister.
Again Devair mistook the deadly radioactive glow for something magical and gave tiny portions of the salt as gifts to his friends and family.
Among these unfortunate recipients was Ivo Ferreira, his brother.
Ivo took the salt home and allowed his six-year-old daughter to play with it.
The young girl, enchanted by the glow, spread the salt onto her skin like a makeup and added it to a meal that she was eating.
On September 25th Devair sold what remained of the capsule to a second scrapyard.
His wife Gabriella Maria Ferreira was already severely ill by this stage, but it was she who eventually raised the alarm.
On September 28th she retrieved the cannister from the scrapyard to which her partner had sold it and took it to a nearby hospital.
There, finally, on September 29th doctors identified the cannister and alerted authorities, who took immediate action to contain the incident and begin cleanup.
This was no small task.
Several houses were demolished and objects retrieved from many more were destroyed after testing positive for radioactive contamination.
Floors and walls in some houses were treated, roofs were hosed down, vehicles were impounded and in some cases destroyed, and five unfortunate pigs were destroyed after it was discovered they were contaminated.
All in all 112,000 people were tested for possible contamination and 249 were found to be contaminated.
With appropriate treatment most of them made a full recovery.
The small doses they had absorbed meant only a slight increase in the risk that they might develop cancer later in life.
Not everyone went unscathed however.
The people who had been closest to the source suffered greatly.
Roberto dos Santos Alves, one of the thieves who had originally removed the source from the hospital, had his right arm amputated after suffering severe radiation burns.
The other thief, Wagner Mota Pereira, lost several fingers.
Neither were charged in the civil suit which followed the incident.
All things considered they got off extremely lightly.
Others were not so lucky.
Edmilson Alves de Souza and Israel Baptista dos Santos, two employees at Devair's junkyard, died from internal injuries sustained as a result of contact with radiation.
Devair's wife Gabriella Maria Ferreira (the one who had eventually raised the alarm about the incident) also died in a similar fashion.
the youngest victim was Leide das Neves Ferreira, the six-year-old daughter of Ivo Ferreira, who had been allowed to play with the radioactive material and add it to her food.
Her body was so contaminated following her death that she was buried in a lead-lined coffin.
The Goiânia incident is now recognized as one of the world's worst incidents of radioactive contamination.
Although there is no recorded legacy of cancer in the local population the fear of radiation and it's terrible effects remains rife to this day
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