Hacker News Reader

Comment by danieldrehmer | Hacker News Reader

I live in a city in Brazil where there was a very grave cesium leak, and two people involved in the incident ended up eating a cesium sandwich, including a little girl.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goiânia_accident#Ivo_and_his_da...

View on HN

I understood that the two people ate a sandwich and a little girl. I'm glad that wasn't the case.

This part seemed quite crazy, though: "She was buried in a common cemetery in Goiânia, in a special fiberglass coffin lined with lead to prevent the spread of radiation. Despite these measures, there was still a riot in the cemetery where over 2,000 people, fearing that her corpse would poison the surrounding area, tried to prevent her burial by using stones and bricks to block the cemetery roadway."

It seems hard to understand in our eyes, but you have to appreciate the lack of education and superstition in Brazil. If you ever read the famous feedback from Feynman about the standard of teaching in Brazil (shit) then you would know why.

I think it's fairly patronising to blame poor education for mistrust of government safety assurances with respect to radiation?

I'm not saying that the coffin was insufficient protection, but I know I don't know enough to be sure. So the question is not "am I well informed enough to judge the risk" (and in a country with good education standards and having studied physics to 18 I probably have a relatively decent education) but rather "do i believe that the person who made that judgement was".

A logical process that no doubt is a result of being well educated

If I recall correctly Feynman thought his students had been taught to memorize facts and formulae, not to actually have a practical understanding of principles. This doesn't make the entire education system shit – it's a second order problem compared to graduating kids from high school who are functionally illiterate.

I should have clarified I meant from a US perspective.

Also, as an adult, I've spent several years living all over Brazil so I'm familiar with their education system and religious beliefs. I don't find the riot so strange when considering the experiences I had in Brazil.

I find it very understandable for people to be wary of radiating materials being brought into a sacred place, not trusting the promises of safety, if the reason was a radiation accident in the first place.

Well, it's not as crazy as it sounds, in a certain perspective.

If you guarantee that "hey! nuclear stuff is absolutely safe, there will never be problems whatsoever!", but then incidents happen, it's reasonable that people is skeptical when you say "hey! that coffin is absolutely safe, there will never be problems whatsoever!".

This could be extended as a reasonable doubt of nuclear energy in general (I don't claim to support it; just accept it as reasonable).

I completely agree.

I understand that radiation isn't magic and things don't become permanently tainted by mere exposure.

Still, this girl ingested cesium and died as a result.

I would be highly uncomfortable with with an unknown quantify of a beta+gamma emitter with a 30 year half life being buried anywhere near where I get my family's drinking water.

You also have to take into account the fact that (and I'm trying to be charitable here) the principles involved's first reaction to a glow being emitted from inside a difficult to open metal cylinder was "Let's see if we can open this so we can make glowing jewelry!"

People are scared of nuclear technology in no small part because they simply don't understand it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com