Radiation protection : Medical aspects of the Goiania accident individual monitoring

ABSTRACT

In September 1987, the rotating asembly of the shielding head of a Teletheraphy unit was removed and the capsule containing 50.9 TBq of 137Cs was dismantled resulting in the widespread contamination of the central Goiania city. This accident resulted in the external and internal exposure of several people, of both genders and of ages ranging from newborn to 73 years old. Sixteen days elapsed between the breaching of the source and the discovery of the accident. During this time, children and adults suffered whole body irradiation and became internally contaminated from eating with contamination hands and from contaminated utensils. People who had handled the source, who lived in houses adjacents to the contaminated sites, or who had some type of contact with the victims were referred to the stadium for monitoring. During the first two months urine and feces analysis was used to evaluate the 137Cs internal contamination and efficacy of PB on 137Cs decorporation. Goiania is located far from any radiationprotection center with the capability to perform in vivo measurements and in vitro monitoring was considering the best technique since most of the individuals had external contamination which would interfere with the in vivo monitoring results: