The Heartbreaking Story Of A Boy Who Found A Radioactive Capsule And Brought It Inside The House

We usually don't hear a lot about radioactive capsules, but they still show up in the news. In February 2023, something surprising happened: a tiny capsule from Australia that held Caesium-137 got lost, then luckily found. This surprised people everywhere and made the Australian authorities search really hard. But, it's not the first time capsules have gone missing.

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Back in 1962, a 10-year-old boy found a capsule with very harmful cobalt-60 close to Mexico City. Sadly, four family members died because of the radiation. They didn't know it was so dangerous. This story, which many people don't remember, shows how bad it can be if we lose radioactive stuff.

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People have different stories about where the boy found the capsule. The capsule had cobalt-60 in it, about 5 curies (a measure of radioactivity). It was used for making special pictures called X-rays. But the problem was, the capsule was taken out of the safe covering made of lead, or it might have already been out of it.

When the capsule was out of its safe cover, it released really dangerous radiation. The boy kept it in his pocket for a few days, and then his mom found it and put it in the kitchen around April 1st.

Department of Fire and Emergency Services/Government of Western Australia

“The source was left to the family to keep and watch without any of the members of the family knowing exactly what the container was and what it contained,” a report by the family's doctors stated.

After a while, the family started feeling sick. They saw that their glass things were turning black, which is a sign of radiation even though they didn't know that. The young boy died on April 29. His mom, who was six months pregnant, passed away on July 19. A little sister, who was 2 years old, died on August 18. The boy's grandma from his dad's side, who had been living with them from April 17, also died on October 15.

The dad, who got a lot of radiation, somehow lived through it. His radiation amount was between 990 and 1,200 "rads" (a way to measure radiation), which is much less than the boy's 4,700 to 5,200 rads.

The reason why some family members got more radiation might be because they were closer to the capsule more often. The sad story came to an end when an investigation found out where the poison came from.

This story shows how bad radiation can be. There are other well-known examples, like Marie Curie, a famous scientist who got sick from her own discoveries, and Chernobyl, a place where a big accident happened with radiation.

Radiation can make problems that last for a really long time, even for many generations. Luckily, the Australian capsule was lost in a countryside place for just six days and it looks like nobody got hurt from it.

This old story reminds us how we have to be very careful with things that can be helpful but also very dangerous.