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الدحيح | جويانيا: الكارثة النووية المنسية

28:25EnglishBy AJ+ كبريتTranscribed Jul 26, 2026
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0:02

What you're about to see is least described as a scientific miracle.

0:06

Hopefully, I'll become the first Egyptian superhero.

0:09

I'll show you how right now.

0:13

Inside this black box,

0:15

there's radioactive uranium and a genetically modified spider.

0:19

You might be wondering what does that mean? I'll tell you.

0:22

According to my accurate studies and research,

0:24

which I've done through years of hard work,

0:27

If I get exposed to that radioactive element

0:29

and the spider bites me at the same time,

0:31

this will supposedly turn me into Spider-Man.

0:36

Exactly, you heard it right the first time,

0:38

Spider-Man.

0:43

I was warned by all professors and scientists,

0:45

that this could lead to genetic mutations and extremely dangerous chronic illnesses.

0:52

However, from where I lay,

0:56

I challenge them,

0:58

and I want to tell them that they'll see a different version of me.

1:01

Just wait!

1:03

Because when I turn into Spide...

1:05

[In the loving memory of Prof. Sayed Omar, may his soul rest in peace.]

1:49

Hello my dear viewers.

1:50

Welcome to a new episode of El-Daheeh.

1:52

Don't give me your hand and try to stay where you are, my friend,

1:55

because this is a radioactive episode.

1:56

Keep your distance, and let's travel back to September 28, 1987.

2:00

On that day, a Brazilian woman from Goiania went to

2:03

the city's health control office,

2:06

with a normal plastic bag in her hands, like the one you buy groceries in.

2:10

She put the bag on the doctor's desk

2:13

and told him that what was in this bag was killing her family.

2:16

The doctor gave her a strange look, thinking she was exaggerating.

2:18

Other than John Wick, what else in the bag would be killing her family.

2:21

The doctor placed the bag away from people,

2:23

until a physicist had come to examine it.

2:25

The physicist took one look and said that there's a disaster.

2:28

The radioactivity meter was screaming like girls in horror films.

2:31

The bag the woman carried was producing an immense amount of radioactivity,

2:35

which could wipe out an entire city off the face of the Earth.

2:39

All of Brazil paid full attention following this moment

2:41

because they started facing one of the world's worst nuclear disasters.

2:46

In order to understand how did a radiation source reach the woman's plastic bag,

2:51

let's travel back to the city of Goiania in 1971,

2:54

specifically the Goias Institute of Radiotherapy there.

2:57

This was a privately-owned cancer treating clinic in a poor neighborhood.

3:00

When the clinic was established, it had 2 external beam radiation therapy devices,

3:04

which produced high power gamma rays.

3:07

As we've said in the 'Cancer' episode, these rays can exterminate cancer cells,

3:11

which is something good.

3:12

One of the devices used a Cobalt-60 isotope

3:15

and was a source of gamma rays.

3:17

Meanwhile, the other device used the Cesium-137 isotope,

3:20

and I want to you to keep this isotope in mind.

3:23

Let's travel a few years forward, late 1985.

3:26

The clinic was moved from the poor neighborhood,

3:28

and the device using cobalt-60 was moved with it.

3:30

What happened is that the device using cesium-137 was left behind,

3:33

as it was an older model that was no longer useful.

3:36

The clinic administration didn't inform

3:38

National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEC) of this.

3:40

Supposedly, this is the supervisory authority responsible for this device.

3:43

If you're leaving a radioactive device behind, you're supposed to tell them.

3:46

What made things even worse was that there was a legal dispute over the old clinic.

3:50

Some wanted it to be a shopping mall, others wanted a gas station,

3:52

and others wanted it to be a public square.

3:54

These conflicts and disputes led to the abandonment of the site.

3:57

In May, 1987,

3:59

an owner of the clinic tried getting in the old clinic

4:01

to take the cesium-137 device.

4:04

However, he failed, as the police prevented him

4:07

because there were disputes on this area.

4:10

This man, along with the professional doctors in the clinic, started sending

4:14

the government letters saying:

4:15

"There is a dangerous device in there that we need to deal with.

4:18

If the amount of cesium falls in the wrong hands, a disaster is bound to happen."

4:22

Because of your intelligence and analytical abilities,

4:24

and the fact that I'm discussing the topic and it's only the beginning of the episode,

4:27

you know that the disaster did happen.

4:29

No one in the government listened to the doctors' warnings.

4:31

The situation remained the same for days and days until 1987.

4:36

Two young men, who you can say were poor, entered this abandoned place

4:41

to search for any scrape that they could sell.

4:43

Poor thieves, just like kids who hide in stores until closure to steal some food,

4:47

an organized theft whose goods are 2 chocolate bars and frozen waffles.

4:50

When these thieves entered the clinic,

4:52

they found a device that looked like chairs found at dentists.

4:55

The device contained a disc made out of lead and cast steel.

4:59

They thought: "You know what?

5:01

Looks like we won't be just simple thieves anymore,

5:03

we're going to become the kings of trading in metal.

5:05

Imagine how much we'll make from taking apart and selling this lead and steel."

5:08

What happened was that we saw a naive hyena drag an ambitious donkey behind.

5:12

Both thieves walked proudly around the city with the heavy disc,

5:17

among people working and children playing,

5:19

not knowing that they were holding a ticking bomb.

5:22

With every step and breath they took, they got closer to death.

5:26

As you might have expected by now,

5:29

the device was simply a radiant head moving on a vertical path.

5:32

The function of this disc they stole was to rotate to direct the gamma rays,

5:37

so the rays accurately hit the patient's body.

5:39

The radioactivity of these rays was 74 terabecquerel.

5:43

No explanation needed, anything with tera in its name is immense.

5:45

The rays were so powerful that they could

5:48

penetrate the body and destroy the cells, and you wouldn't feel a thing.

5:50

They walked with it, scattering the radiation around the city.

5:53

This ended with them reaching their house and keeping the disc with them.

5:57

It didn't stop there, they decided to open it to see what was inside.

6:00

Inside they found a smaller disc that looked like a capsule.

6:03

They worked really hard for 3 days, trying to open the capsule, until they got tired.

6:09

These guys didn't know that they were working hard to commit suicide.

6:11

After 3 days, one of them started feeling dizzy and had diarrhea.

6:16

His right hand got swollen, and severs burns started appearing on it.

6:19

Let me tell you that the burns looked exactly the same as the capsule's opening,

6:24

the same look and size was on his hand.

6:26

If this were to happen to you, you would have gone to the hospital.

6:29

If the doctors were to check the symptoms, they would have said:

6:31

"It's probably food poisoning or allergy caused by strawberries or something.

6:34

This doesn't out of the blue.

6:35

You just need to take a week off and eat well."

6:38

This happened to the one who couldn't open the capsule.

6:41

His friend was still home working as hard as ever.

6:44

His curiosity had him in a choke-hold, he wanted to open the damn capsule.

6:47

Hard work indeed pays off, my friend.

6:51

He opened the capsule and got some white powder.

6:53

Initially he thought it was some type of gunpowder,

6:54

but he failed when trying to light it up.

6:56

I don't know what the hell is going on in his thief brain.

6:58

Even if it's gunpowder, why the hell would you try to light it!

7:00

However, the blame is not on him,

7:02

the blame is on the police that prevented the doctors from entering the clinic

7:05

but couldn't prevent thieves from doing so.

7:06

Let me tell that I wish the powder was gunpowder,

7:09

heroin, cocaine, or anything else.

7:11

The powder was simply Cesium Chloride.

7:14

I can's even begin to say how dangerous that is.

7:16

The first mistake you make with it is probably your last mistake ever.

7:18

After doing all of this, he realized that it won't be of any use for him.

7:23

He took the capsule to someone who had a scrap dumpster.

7:25

The man took it and thought:

7:27

"That's probably scrap, I'll just set it aside, it's useless.

7:29

Why the hell am I still working in the career!"

7:31

The man treated the capsule as scrap as we've said.

7:34

One day, on his way back to the garage, he saw something that caught his attention.

7:37

The broken capsule produced blue light in the darkness at night.

7:41

That light glowed very bright, similar to UFOs in films,

7:44

as if it was something supernatural.

7:47

Scientists differed in explaining this.

7:48

They said that it was likely some kind of radiant glow,

7:52

which happens when the radioactive substance reacts with its surroundings.

7:56

The scrap merchant said: "Looks like I'm no longer working in scrap.

7:59

This substance doesn't belong in the garage, but in my house.

8:01

I discovered a treasure, everyone, which I'll trade in."

8:03

He used the capsule as a source of content.

8:05

He showed it to his family and friends.

8:08

"Come check out what I have here! It glows in the dark!"

8:11

To the point that he started distributing this glowing powder among his friends.

8:14

"Come on, take some of the powder, have some fun with it!"

8:17

The family was fascinated by the blue light produced by the powder.

8:21

Based on what I know, what I'm about to say actually happened.

8:24

To the point that they decided to rub the powder on their skin.

8:27

Just so you know that there's no limit to human idiocy.

8:29

One of the merchant's friends drew with it on his body to glow among people.

8:33

As you might expect,

8:35

this resulted in a radioactive burn that looked the same as the drawing.

8:38

The burn remained on the man's body, and no one understood what was happening.

8:41

Things didn't stop with the scrap merchant and his friends.

8:44

The merchant's brother worked as a bus driver, my friend.

8:47

He kept the powder in his hands, and he wiped it in a chair when he got bored.

8:51

He walked around the entire bus with this powder,

8:54

he drove around the city and passed by everyone.

8:57

The public transportation bus turned into a mobile radioactive focal point.

9:01

Up until now, we still haven't seen the actual tragedy, my friend.

9:04

The actual tragedy happened to the merchant's second brother.

9:08

This man took some of the powder and put it on the table while having dinner.

9:11

His 6-year-old daughter was fascinated with the blue glow

9:14

and started playing with the powder and rubbing it around her body.

9:17

The far more dangerous disaster was that she ate a sandwich

9:20

with her hands that were full of radioactive cesium.

9:22

She started vomiting and getting tired,

9:24

and her body started collapsing on the inside.

9:25

We're now on the threshold of a disaster,

9:28

that didn't affect the little girl only,

9:30

but affected the huge amount of people who were exposed to the powder,

9:35

thus, exposed to this radiation.

9:37

Every particle of cesium traveled miles away

9:40

and started a new radioactive focal point,

9:41

which polluted a new street.

9:43

This kept going for 2 weeks,

9:45

and the radiation traveled around each neighborhood in the city.

9:47

It was like that ghost that no one saw or sensed.

9:49

The situation remained the same until September 28, 1987.

9:51

Maria, the merchant's wife, was exhausted to the core

9:55

and started connecting the dots.

9:57

"Our life was going great before that damn powder had appeared.

10:01

It doesn't make sense that whoever touched it got the same symptoms and burns."

10:05

She decided to take a brave step and save her city and herself.

10:08

This leads to the scene in the beginning scene,

10:09

where she brought the broken capsule in a plastic bag

10:12

with one of her husband's workers.

10:14

Maria and the worker went to the health control office

10:16

to file one of history's strangest reports

10:19

about a deadly powder.

10:21

Maria and the worker were sent to the State Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

10:26

The doctor noticed that the burns they had weren't normal

10:29

and didn't respond to any treatment.

10:31

It seemed these were radioactive burns.

10:33

"Abo Hmeed, I have a question,

10:35

what's the difference difference between normal and radioactive burns?"

10:37

Normal burns are clear, fire touches your skin, so you feel a sting

10:40

and see the mark on your skin.

10:42

However, in radioactive burns, radiation enters your body

10:44

and silently destroys the cells on the inside,

10:47

making you think you're fine.

10:48

However, after a day, a week, or whatever,

10:50

you discover that the damage has already been happening over a long time,

10:53

and you already have the burn.

10:54

This was exactly what had happened to Maria, the scrap merchant's wife.

10:58

In the middle of the story, I told you about a physicist

11:01

who came to examine the radioactive bag that Maria had.

11:06

Remember when I told you that the radioactivity meter was screaming?

11:09

If we look back, we'll see that the physicist didn't panic

11:12

when he had approached the bag

11:14

because he used a radioactivity meter called the Scintillometer.

11:16

The problem was that when approaching the building, not the bag,

11:21

he saw that the device was screaming even before entering the building.

11:24

Before reaching the bag,

11:26

the meter displayed the highest score it could detect,

11:29

and this wasn’t a nuclear leak.

11:30

The physicist was in a state of denial

11:32

just like the one you get when measuring your weight at the doctor's.

11:35

"Surely the scale is broken,

11:37

it's not possible, I feel very lightweight."

11:39

No, the scale is working fine, you're not working out, man

11:41

The physicist couldn't imagine the meter to be right,

11:44

it's impossible for such an amount of radiation to exist

11:48

in a civil place among people,

11:50

this isn't Chernobyl.

11:51

The actual problem was that the meter had the highest score.

11:54

If the highest weight on the scale is 100 kgs,

11:56

and you see that the scale indicates its highest weight possible,

11:59

you could weigh 100 kgs,

12:01

but at the same time you could weigh 120, 150, 200, 300, 400, or 1000 kgs.

12:06

You've reached its highest limit, you don't know exactly.

12:09

The physicist realized the danger of the disaster

12:10

and started giving quick evacuation procedures.

12:14

He asked the police and fire department to seal off this area.

12:17

What shows how strange that was is

12:19

is how firefighters understood nothing upon arriving

12:21

and wanted to throw the bag full of cesium in the nearest river.

12:24

If you've missed the radiation and didn't get to rub it on your skin,

12:28

we'll deliver it to your intestines and shower you with it.

12:30

Thankfully, the physicist stopped them at the last moment.

12:34

"This isn't the kind of fire that you put out with some water,

12:37

where you just bring a car and 2 hoses, this isn't possible here.

12:40

This is the kind of fire that warms the Cold War

12:42

and makes the Soviet Union faint out of love."

12:45

It's needless to say that tension was immense in Brazil.

12:48

Authorities announced a state of emergency.

12:50

Police, the fire department,

12:52

and the Nuclear Energy Commission assembled to face this.

12:55

They used helicopters and cars with radiation detection devices installed.

12:59

They started scanning about 67 kms of the city with these helicopters.

13:02

They didn't stop there, they also scanned 2000 kms of routes

13:06

and found traces of radioactive pollution in the transportation network.

13:10

Here, some Hiroshima and Nagasaki-like procedures started.

13:13

The minister of health ordered the evacuation of the city's Olympic stadium.

13:17

"All due respect to sports, we need this stadium."

13:20

The stadium became a center to inspect and quarantine

13:22

those who were exposed to radiation.

13:23

Hundreds of lines of terrified people stood outside the stadium.

13:27

Entire families were asking whether they'll live or die.

13:30

"The radiation is now inside us.

13:32

Our cells keep changing, mutating, and dying,

13:35

and who knows how far cancer will spread among the citizens."

13:39

The problem with radiation isn't that it's lethal,

13:41

its problem is that it could give you cancer, killing you slowly and painfully.

13:47

Remember, this horror wasn't caused by the recent actions only.

13:50

Take care that we're talking about 1987,

13:53

and what anniversary was celebrated in that year? Chernobyl.

13:55

The Chernobyl incident had just happened a year ago, 1986.

13:58

Therefore, people knew what was happening and the terror they were about to witness.

14:02

Pictures of explosions

14:04

and abandoned homes and city were still newly embedded in people's minds,

14:09

so their terror was even worse.

14:11

Of course we can't compare between this and what had happened in Chernobyl,

14:14

which we'll hopefully make a bigger episode about.

14:16

However, it's still terrifying

14:18

because we don't know how far this extends.

14:21

Maybe this isn't a nuclear reactor,

14:23

but we're still witnessing a radioactive leak.

14:25

The path of the radiation we've mentioned surely wasn't that clear back then.

14:29

They actually didn't know how big of a disaster they were about to witness,

14:32

specially, the fact that firefighters wanted to toss

14:36

the radioactive substances in the river.

14:37

That's aside from the bus that was moving around with radiation.

14:41

The ministry of water resources, of youth,

14:43

and transportation were working together

14:45

to make this radiation reach every Brazilian home,

14:48

and good luck to the ministry of health.

14:50

With the crisis aggravating,

14:51

the Brazilian government realized that it needed

14:53

the help of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

14:56

Brazil said: "Please! We're totally doomed. Best regards, help us, please!"

15:00

The agency sent a team of specialists right away.

15:03

Thankfully, this group gained experience from the terrible previous year,

15:06

so it was prepared with radiation-control protocols

15:09

and a device for measuring full body radioactivity.

15:11

Here, the biological inspection program started.

15:14

A commission of global experts was formed to investigate this disaster,

15:17

They managed to inspect 10% of the residents in the city,

15:22

which was 100,000 people,

15:24

over the course of several months.

15:26

They discovered that 249 people had radioactive pollution.

15:29

Some of them had light external pollution,

15:31

they undressed and took a shower, and their radiation level returned to normal.

15:35

However, pollution had entered the bodies of the rest and started finishing them.

15:38

Here, we have to stop and discuss a dangerous contradiction.

15:43

At that time, everyone was comparing what was happening

15:45

and what had happened in Chernobyl a year before.

15:48

If you remember the series about Chernobyl,

15:50

Chernobyl, the great nuclear disaster, caused few casualties,

15:55

approximately only 28 people died.

15:58

However, as we've mentioned previously,

16:01

the problem with nuclear radiation leaks is not that it kills you right away,

16:06

it doesn't, this was the old-fashioned way in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

16:09

The problem with radiation is that it slowly kills you.

16:12

It slowly spreads to large numbers

16:15

and kills them in devastating ways, like different types of cancer.

16:17

This was what actually scared scientists about the disaster in Brazil.

16:20

Maybe they didn't have a horrifying amount of casualties,

16:23

but they didn't know how this might rebound as time goes on.

16:26

The danger might be smaller but more sly.

16:29

People in Brazil were exposed to a radioactive source for more than 2 weeks.

16:33

Maybe the radiation was weaker than the reactor,

16:35

but the exposure time was much longer.

16:39

This might have been what made the cesium spread throughout people's tissues

16:43

and start behaving as if it's Potassium.

16:46

"I don't know anything about radiation, I'm found in bananas."

16:48

Let me tell you that there are 2 highly crucial elements

16:54

in neurotransmitters, the sodium pump and potassium pump.

16:57

You can ask any neurologist about their importance.

17:01

If you go back to the periodic table,

17:03

you'll find that potassium and cesium lie in the same column.

17:06

Therefore, your body is easily fooled to treat cesium as potassium.

17:09

When your body sees cesium, it goes:

17:10

"Welcome mr. potassium! Head to Nerve cells right away.

17:13

Please, allow me to absorb you in our humble body."

17:14

This makes it more dangerous than other elements that remain in one place.

17:17

As time goes one, cesium starts slowly destroying the cells,

17:20

and the host feels nothing.

17:21

Until we see the whole body collapse.

17:24

In this disaster, the 20 most dangerous cases were transferred

17:26

to specialized hospitals.

17:27

The problem is that even when you know who contacted the radiation,

17:31

you'll take them away and treat them in the best hospitals.

17:33

However, you'll start seeing problems like the nurses' fear of approaching them,

17:36

thinking they might contact the radiation.

17:38

Additionally, the radiation level in some people crossed the device's measurement,

17:42

so it was bigger than any reading.

17:44

Meaning they might not even know if it's lowering or not.

17:46

Sometime the medical staff needed to wear lead protective equipment and aprons.

17:51

Patients became a radioactive source.

17:52

They also saw very high cesium levels in urine tests.

17:56

To the point that urine and waste were collected in specialized containers.

17:59

Your feces became actual nuclear waste.

18:02

What you flushed in the bathroom was wrapped

18:05

and put in specialized radioactive isolation barrels.

18:07

They feared that if this waste was to reach the sewers,

18:11

it could have completely polluted the sewer network and water.

18:14

Doctors started giving the patients a medication called Prussian Blue.

18:17

This is a chemical compound that holds the cesium and helps the body get rid of it.

18:20

This was what had happened to patients inside hospitals;

18:23

however, outside hospitals, there was another war happening on the streets.

18:28

Remember the damn plastic bag that we started the episode with?

18:32

Authorities brought a crane, put a steel sewer pipe on the bag,

18:36

and poured concrete inside this pipe

18:38

to isolate the radioactive source from the world.

18:42

Then, they took the pipe and the radioactive source to a dump-site.

18:45

Upon further research, they discovered the existence of many pollution focal points.

18:49

As we've seen how generous the thieves were.

18:52

The scrape merchant was even more generous,

18:53

who felt like he wasn't trading only in scrape for the first time,

18:57

so he was overly generous.

18:58

There were almost 7 radioactive focal points.

19:00

Let me tell you that the radiation in the dumpster was so immense,

19:05

that it reached 400 milliesievert per hour.

19:07

Of course 400 seems strange to you, and you want to compare it to something.

19:10

"What is the normal amount, Abo Hmeed?"

19:11

Let me surprise you that there's a certain limit of radiation

19:13

that you can be exposed to.

19:15

That limit is 1 milliesievert.

19:19

"Really? So I can get exposed to it 400 times?"

19:21

Hold on, I didn't tell over how long,

19:25

1 milliesievert per year!

19:27

Meaning you can be exposed to only 1 milliesievert in a year.

19:31

The merchant and his friends, who were moisturizing with the powder, were exposed

19:35

to approximately 400 milliesievert per hour.

19:38

Bring your calculator and see how many hours are there in a year

19:41

and multiply that by 400 after it.

19:43

Surely the cleaning process was extremely difficult, my friend.

19:46

It needed more than some water, Detol floor cleaner, and a random mop.

19:49

Authorities discovered 35 radioactively polluted houses.

19:54

Forty one families left their houses, no knowing when they'd return,

19:57

some of them wouldn't even return.

19:59

They had to demolish 7 houses out of the 35.

20:02

Their fear didn't stop at making them demolish the houses,

20:05

they took the layer of sand that was found under the houses,

20:09

in addition to anything that had the slightest percentage of radiation,

20:11

kids toys, clothes, furniture, or anything.

20:13

All of this was put in designated barrels and boxes

20:16

and buried as radioactive waste.

20:18

The amount of waste they collected needed to

20:19

be transported with 46 giant transport trailers.

20:23

The cleaning workers worked shifts that were calculated by seconds,

20:26

you heard me right, by seconds because of how dangerous it was.

20:29

The actual tragedy that broke the loop happened in the hospital.

20:33

Remember the little girl who ate and played with the powder?

20:36

Unfortunately, her body couldn't handle the amount of radiation it received,

20:39

so she started suffering internal bleeding

20:41

and horrendous burns in her mouth and throat.

20:43

Let me tell you that her petite body was probably radiating.

20:46

To the point that the medical staff had to quarantine her,

20:50

they feared to approach her.

20:51

Unfortunately, she died isolated and horrified a few days later.

20:55

This is a very difficult experience for an adult,

20:57

imagine how it is for a 6-year-old girl.

20:58

On the same day, her aunt died, the main character of our episode,

21:02

the woman who saved that city,

21:04

Maris, the woman who went to report the plastic bag.

21:07

The burial story of these 2 was very tragic.

21:09

On October 26, people woke up to a heart wrenching scene,

21:13

2 human bodies put in fiber glass caskets

21:17

lined with lead weighing about a ton.

21:20

This hideousness didn't stop there,

21:22

it went in a different direction when they went to bury them in a public cemetery.

21:24

More than 2,000 people protested to the burial,

21:27

they threw rocks at the caskets, trying to prevent the burial.

21:30

These people weren't evil, they feared that bodies might pollute the soil.

21:35

The situation remained the same, until the police intervened,

21:37

and the bodies were buried.

21:39

Maybe we were able to quarantine those infected with the radiation,

21:42

and maybe we managed to remove the houses and places affected by the radiation.

21:47

The radiation was cleaned despite how hard it was.

21:49

What was much harder than cleaning the radiation was cleaning the reputation,

21:52

the stigma that was stuck to the people of Goiania.

21:56

Many people started to neglect and bully them.

21:59

For example, hotels refused people who had came from this city.

22:02

planes and many means of transportation were scared of transporting them.

22:06

Normal people in Brazil were scared of buying

22:09

food and products originating from there.

22:11

There was a total isolation of the city.

22:13

The residents were like a settlement isolated away from people.

22:17

Of course this highly affected the city's economy, crushing it to the ground.

22:20

This is an effect that you wouldn't see as a clear result of the radiation.

22:25

Brazilian society was scared of approaching

22:29

or interacting with those people,

22:30

to an extent that made some survivors curse the moment they survived.

22:33

In specific moments, it's hard to evaluate humanity,

22:35

where fear of the unknown is much stronger than human empathy.

22:38

People couldn't actually understand and handle this fear,

22:41

they wanted to use any means possible to avoid exposure to such radiation,

22:44

which caused the isolation and death of a 6-year-old girl.

22:48

Some people started catching diseases that weren't directly caused by the radiation.

22:52

The state of anxiety, tension, depression, sorrow, and isolation started having

22:59

physical effects on the residents and survivors.

23:01

For example, stomach ulcer rates started increasing

23:04

due to anxiety.

23:05

They noticed an increase in the blood pressure of survivors

23:08

as a symptom related to clinical depression

23:10

and panic attacks they went through.

23:11

If we check on the scrape merchant and his family,

23:14

we'll see that his life was ruined.

23:16

His body was now full of radiation,

23:17

as well as his scrape, to the point that it had to be disposed of.

23:22

It didn't stop there, he lost his wife and niece.

23:25

His work, properties, and family became radioactive waste.

23:30

Even though he was exposed to an immense amount of radiation, but he didn't die.

23:33

However, his survival was meaningless

23:36

because how could it be of use after he had lost his wife and feels ashamed?

23:41

He started getting depressed and resorted to drinking and abusing alcohol,

23:45

leading to his death of hepatic fibrosis.

23:47

As for his brother, the father of the radiation diseased girl,

23:49

he lived with the guilt of his daughter's death

23:51

and died later of emema.

23:53

As for the third brother, the bus driver,

23:55

he lost parts of his fingers and his skin was ruined.

23:58

He always felt pain and burning in his hands.

24:00

The pain got so extreme that he sometimes put his hands in the freezer to numb it.

24:04

His fear of passing this down to anyone else got so intense,

24:08

he underwent a surgery that prevented him from having kids.

24:10

He was horrified of giving birth to genetically deformed children.

24:14

Despite this suffering, this man has a very inspiring story.

24:18

He didn't stop his life and isolate himself into depression.

24:21

He became the head of the Association of Victims of Cesium in the city.

24:24

This association included more than 1,600 members

24:26

calling for their rights and compensations for what had happened.

24:29

In 2017, he was honored for his efforts.

24:32

According to the IAEA, this incident is ranked at the fifth level,

24:36

considering that the International Nuclear and Radiological Event scale is 7 levels.

24:40

The 5th level is defined as an incident with wide-range consequences,

24:44

environmental pollution, human injuries,

24:46

and emergency intervention around the whole country.

24:48

This establishes as the worst radioactive disaster

24:51

that has happened outside nuclear reactors.

24:53

The agency's report stated this disaster wasn't the result of a single mistake,

24:56

but a series of mistakes.

24:58

The first mistake was the regulatory mistake.

25:00

How come something that radioactive is left behind unattended?

25:03

After I've told you the whole story, it's easy for you to say:

25:06

"I got it! The 2 thieves are the reason behind everything that had happened."

25:10

In fact, this is a pretty futile blame that will fix nothing, my friend,

25:14

because there'll always be people who do wrong things.

25:17

According to the agency, the real mistakes are systematic ones.

25:22

These mistakes start with regulatory agencies

25:23

that are supposed to make sure something like this isn't available to the public,

25:27

and administrative authorities that left the place unguarded.

25:30

Let me add to this and tell you

25:32

that the mistake didn't start with the thieves,

25:36

it started from the fact that they were illiterate, unable to read or write.

25:42

Therefore, they couldn't read the warning signs like "Danger!" "Radioactive Hazard!"

25:47

"Warning! Disaster Material!"

25:48

They didn't know that this symbol means it could cause a huge problem.

25:52

We're looking at a complete societal mistake,

25:54

one that starts with the policy.

25:56

The agency's report says that radiation hazard warnings should be clear,

26:00

and everyone should know their meanings, where seeing one makes you step away.

26:04

The importance of this incident lies in the fact that

26:06

it generated a new warning symbol.

26:09

This symbol combines that traditional radiation symbol

26:11

and easy-to-understand direct danger signs.

26:14

The agency's report set recommendations

26:16

on how to safeguard highly dangerous radioactive sources.

26:20

The other important thing it recommended was

26:23

that those responsible for solutions should understand its aspects

26:26

and be trained on how to deal with radioactive disasters.

26:29

We don't want another firefighter to say:

26:31

"This is a burning radioactive substance,

26:33

so if we put in the water, it'll go cold."

26:35

No, it won't, it's not a hot pan in a sink. You're the one who'll go cold.

26:39

It's important for those in charge to be knowledgeable.

26:42

In mid 90s, a permanent radioactive waste dumb was built.

26:46

There is a graveyard for everything that contacted the radiation.

26:48

It's actually a memory for us about what happens

26:52

when we fail to deal with this kind of crises.

26:55

The responsibility to bury this waste isn't limited to

26:58

previous or current generations.

26:59

Let me surprise you that this radioactive waste will still pose a threat

27:03

for 300 years to come.

27:05

Cesium will remain radioactive for 300 years to come.

27:08

Approximately 10 generations will inherit this horrifying responsibility.

27:12

As for the capsule that was the reason behind all of this,

27:15

the Brazilian army collected it

27:17

and currently displays it in a school in Rio de Janeiro,

27:20

so no one forgets the disaster,

27:21

and people can see how such a major disaster could be caused

27:24

by such small mistakes.

27:26

Thanks to these procedures, Goiania is now a normal city full of life,

27:30

with safe radiation levels.

27:31

However, this incident reminds us

27:33

that the most dangerous disasters aren't the ones we can see,

27:36

but the ones we're ignorant of.

27:38

This incident reminds us that knowledge is no longer a luxury in this world,

27:41

and if a warning isn't understandable by the public, then, it's useless.

27:44

Everything that happened had started with a plastic bag with a simple woman,

27:47

but it was actually way bigger than a bag.

27:50

Reaching the stage of the radioactive bag was a result

27:54

of a long series of disasters,

27:56

a long series of negligence, mismanagement, and lack of awareness.

27:59

This story isn't a mere incident in history books,

28:01

it's a warning siren to all of us that technology requires high awareness,

28:05

in order for it to not become a monster that would devour us all,

28:08

a monster that we could have avoided with a proper warning.

28:10

In the end, may God bless us all.

28:12

Don't forget to watch the new episodes and the old ones.

28:14

Check the sources below and subscribe if you're on YouTube.

28:16

-Hey, my female friend! -"Yes?"

28:18

-Do you know why you'll never be radioactive?

28:19

-"Why?" -Because no one is your iso-type.

28:23

"I love this crazy fella! Meet me at the reactor."

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