Shelby Leonard / LANL
Cobalt-60 Capsule
Not all accidents with radioactive materials involve nuclear centers, uranium enrichment factories or facilities that somehow deal with toxic products. Sometimes they happen at home.
More than 60 years ago, a family in Mexico began to get sick in a mysterious way. Fevers, fatigue and strange symptoms They spread throughout the house, without anyone being able to explain why.
The cause was not in the water or food. It was a small metal capsule with cobalt-60a radioactive material, which had remained quietly in its new home, and that triggered a catastrophe invisible.
The story begins in March 1962, when the family moved to a new home in Mexico City. It was a couple, the 10 -year -old sonthe daughter of 2.
According to the medical team that later accompanied the case, for unknown reasons, in the backyard of the house was a small lead container with a capsul with radioactive material – which was found by the boy.
Not knowing that it was cobalt-60, a synthetic radioactive isotope highly toxic, with a half-life of 5.2 years, The boy caught in the capsule that was in the armored container, and walked with her in her pocket pocket for several days. Finally, he put it in a kitchen cabinet.
Later this monththe grandmother moved to the house. According to the medical report, it was the grandmother who then noticed that The glass cups that were in the furniture where the capsule had been placed they were darkening.
The darkening of the glass had already been described in other cases of radiation exposure. However, strange as it seemed, No suspicion The family about what was really going on.
Silently, the radiation that escaped the material began to reach family members, who sick and eventually died.
The boy died on April 29, 1962, 38 days after the family moved to the house. The mother died on July 19, her sister from 2 years to 18 August and her grandmother on October 15. Just survived his father, who spent less time at home (and in the kitchen), with less serious symptoms.
Only in August did radiation exposure identified as the cause of the deaths, says the. The investigators tried to determine the doses of radiation received by each element of the familywhich was not an easy task, as people circulated inside and outside the house and it was necessary to take into account factors such as radiation that was dispersed or absorbed by the objects around them.
Based on family routines, the team was able to estimate their exposure levels. According to the medical report, while the radioactive source was stored in the kitchen, Both the boy and the sister were less exposedsince they spent more time playing abroad.
The boy, however, had received a very high dose, especially during direct contact with Cobalto-60, and was exposed to a dose of radiation 4.700-5.200 rad.
The mother, who was pregnant, received a high dose, about 3.500 raddue to time that was preparing meals in the kitchen. This situation changed when it began to feel sick (by the effect of radiation) and the grandmother, who took over the housework while the mother rested, was exposed to 2.870 rad.
The girl, who after her brother’s death spent more time indoors, soon closer to the radioactive source, was exposed a 3.000 radwhile the dose received by the father will have been only 1,200 rad.
The capsule was only discovered and withdrawn from housing after the mother’s death, but at that time the damage was already done
It was eventually found that the cobalt-60 capsule came from a hospital radiotherapy unit, used in cancer treatments, although it has never been clarified how it went to the house where the family settled.
The human body is capable of receiving small doses of radiation; This is why when we do an X-ray, or receive treatments for cancer.
This radiation is usually administered on devices with protective coatingsthat control the radiation that affects us. But without this protection, the radiation that usually saves lives eventually victimized four people – silently, without warning, and nothing if you could do it.
