Goiânia art museum opens exhibition on 1987 Cesium-137 accident

The Museu de Arte de Goiânia (MAG) has opened a new exhibition titled ‘Memórias de Dona Lourdes: Ver para não esquecer’. The exhibit uses photographs, documents, and personal accounts to recount the history of the 1987 Cesium-137 radiological accident in Goiânia, Brazil.

The exhibition focuses on the testimony of Lourdes das Neves Ferreira, whose daughter, six-year-old Leide das Neves Ferreira, was one of the victims of the disaster. The display aims to humanize Leide by presenting her life and childhood beyond her status as a victim of radiation.

The 1987 accident began when scrap collectors found an abandoned radiotherapy machine at the Instituto Goiano de Radioterapia. The resulting exposure to Cesium-137 caused the deaths of four people and led to the monitoring of approximately 112,000 individuals, with 249 confirmed cases of radioactive contamination.