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The Goiânia Accident – How a Shiny Blue Glow Became One of the World’s Worst Radiological Disasters

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It started, as many tragedies do, with an abandoned building. In September 1987, in the Brazilian city of Goiânia, two scrap metal scavengers stumbled across a forgotten relic of modern medicine, a radiotherapy unit left behind in a derelict cancer clinic. What they didn’t know was that inside its metal casing sat a small, silvery capsule containing caesium-137, one of the most dangerous radioactive isotopes known to science.


The machine had been left behind after the clinic moved, its owners embroiled in a legal dispute over who was responsible for clearing the site. That dispute, left unresolved, would prove catastrophic.


A Glowing Treasure

When Roberto dos Santos and Wagner Mota cracked open the unit, they found a mysterious blue glow emanating from the powder inside. To them, it seemed almost magical — beautiful, harmless, even valuable. In reality, it was a lethal sign of Cherenkov radiation, produced when the high-energy particles from caesium-137 excited the air around it.


Roberto took the capsule home, showing it to family and friends. Some rubbed the glittering powder on their skin. Others placed it in their homes as decoration. Children played with it, fascinated by its sparkle. Pieces of the contaminated metal were sold to a scrapyard owner named Devair Ferreira, who proudly displayed it to visitors. None of them knew they were handling something that could burn through flesh and damage their very DNA.

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The First Signs of Trouble

Within days, the “lucky find” began to feel less fortunate. Ferreira’s family, and others who had handled the material, developed mysterious symptoms, vomiting, dizziness, skin burns, and hair loss. At first, they thought it was food poisoning or the flu. But when multiple people from different households fell ill with the same symptoms, alarm bells began to ring.


One of Ferreira’s employees finally took the suspicious powder to a local hospital for analysis. Almost immediately, the seriousness of the situation became clear. Radiation experts were called in from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Their readings showed dangerously high contamination — not just in homes, but in the streets, vehicles, and even on the skin and clothes of countless residents.

Containing the Invisible Enemy

Authorities evacuated several city blocks, setting up a 500-metre exclusion zone around the scrapyard. Hazmat teams in full protective suits began the painstaking task of identifying and removing contaminated soil, furniture, and even entire buildings.

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Over 112,000 people were tested for radiation exposure. Of these, 249 were found to be significantly contaminated. Four people died from acute radiation syndrome in the weeks that followed, including six-year-old Leide das Neves, who had played with the glowing powder and later suffered severe internal damage.


The clean-up operation was one of the most complex in Brazil’s history. Contaminated materials — tonnes of soil, furniture, and personal possessions — were sealed in lead-lined drums and buried in secure storage sites. Many survivors faced long-term health effects, including cancer and genetic damage.

Public Panic and Stigma

The Goiânia accident caused mass panic. Neighbouring towns and cities, upon hearing the news, shunned Goiânia residents. Bus drivers refused to pick them up. Hotels turned them away. Farmers found their produce unsellable. The fear of radiation — often misunderstood and exaggerated — created a wave of social isolation for those from the city.

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Lessons Learned

The Goiânia disaster highlighted the dangers of improperly stored radioactive material, especially in countries without robust regulatory oversight. It also underscored the need for public awareness about radiation hazards.


Brazil tightened its controls on radioactive sources, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) used the incident as a case study in safety training worldwide. Today, the Goiânia accident remains one of the most serious radiological incidents not caused by nuclear weapons or reactor failure, a cautionary tale about how something so small and beautiful can cause devastation on a massive scale.

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