Glowing Peril: The Magical Glitter That Poisoned a City
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford11/24/23 • 35 min
In Goiânia, Brazil, a junk dealer acquires an old medical device from two scrap-metal scavengers. The device itself isn't useful, but it comes with precious lead which will fetch him good money. There's something else inside the device, too: a curious, crystal-like substance that glows bright blue in the dark.
At first, the dealer is mesmerized by it: he wants to turn it into jewelry for his wife. But, everyone who comes into contact with the magical glitter seems to get sick. His own family succumbs to nausea and vomiting. A doctor suggests food poisoning - but this isn't like any food poisoning they've ever known before. And soon, the whole city is contaminated.
No-one saw this horrifying radiation accident coming. Should they have?
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11/24/23 • 35 min
5 Listeners
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford - Glowing Peril: The Magical Glitter That Poisoned a City
Transcript
Pushkin. The body of a six year old girl is about to be buried. She died in isolation in a hospital bed, a terrible death. Her face and neck swollen, ulcers on her stomach, internal bleeding from almost every organ.
Speaker 1Just a few weeks earlier, she had been completely fine, a normal, healthy, happy girl. Her name was Lada. Her body is in a coffin on a vehicle making its way to the cemetery. The c
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