Brazil Deadly Glitter

A junkyard radiation mishap

The lovely phosphorescent powder was unlike anything Leide das Neves Ferreira, 6, had ever seen. Her father, a junk dealer in the Brazilian city of Goiania, discovered the mysterious substance when he pried open a heavy lead casing that a scavenger had sold him. Leide rubbed the powder on her body so that she glowed and sparkled. Dust fell on the sandwich she was eating.

Leide, her father and the scrap collector were in critical condition at a Rio de Janeiro hospital last week, not expected to survive. An additional 20 or so people were also hospitalized, most of them relatives...

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