It would be awesome if you covered the Maralinga and Montebello Island Nuclear tests the UK did down here that contaminated Melbourne and huge areas of farmland. Even to this day there is Plutonium and other fission product hotspots still being found! At the time my father was working in Melbourne for Kodak Film, and for days they had to stop production as the radiation detectors were pegged due to the fallout.
Makes you wonder how much goes on no one finds out about. Although after this our local scrap yards have had to install radiation detectors. They were finding radioactive contaminated scrap metal on all kinds of stuff. Our trigger was a bridge section that left the scrap yard in a pickle
@@bobbysenterprises3220 that’s exactly what I was thinking. What an almighty cock-up. Also shows the potency of any potential “dirty” weapon that govts may have already come up with.. These horrible incidents illustrate perhaps that one could do serious damage to a country’s infrastructure through injudicously placed bio/chemical weaponry. Great vid as always.
@@bobbysenterprises3220 The trail of sick and dying is hard to miss inside a city, but in a rural area away from hospitals, people can just disappear without a known cause.
@Andree Hoolihan "Radiation hormesis" is institutionally suppressed by the "conventional" theory paradigm of "Linear No Threshold". LNT is ***NOT*** science based and is espoused by those who refuse to actually do research on how dangerous various forms of radiation ACTUALLY are. They impute danger where there MAY be danger but REFUSE to test the hypothesis because it threatens.... something? They are part of a "Science priesthood" or "Scientific Theocracy" that one is not "allowed" to question. It is the same way we got "Fats are bad" for forty plus years. One was simply not ALLOWED to question the premise that it might be related to whole diet. Weston Price is an example of this. He was vilified for thirty plus years by the American Heart Association. To this day they do not FULLY admit that they were acting in a way contrary to ACTUAL SCIENTIFIC priciples. But hey.... RaDiAtIoN sCaRy!!!! .... right....
Had a radioactive rock in my college had to be removed and placed in a lead lined box. Professors didn’t even know it was radioactive or how long it had been at the college.
I live in Hungary, if i find someone with a working radiation detector i can check. I live in a flat next to an abandoned concrete panel factory, railway yard and the city has an abandoned coal power plant dating back to the late 1800s. Plus a few missile bases and a soviet air traffic control bunker around. It would be interesting to see if there are slightly abnormal radiation levels anywhere.
Oh dear God. I have worked at a recycled steel mill (melting steel scrap into structural steel) and every truck going in went through a rad detector. This is a dumpster 🔥🚒🚛. Thanks John!
@@alexdrockhound9497 they are surprisingly common, I was dropping a load at a scrap yard in UT a few years ago and the truck Infront of me set off the radiation detector, the eventually found the specific piece of scrap that set it off, it was a section of a 5" pipe this guy had found at an abandoned mine site on the backside of his property that he was cleaning
As result of this, the entire scrap industry in the us has sensitive scintillation detectors in key places... like front gates. Anywhere material enters a foundry. It may be forgotten to the public, but it isnt forgotten, it is easily and cheaply prevented.
I was born in Juarez and always heard horror stories about this. One uncle worked in the Yonke Fénix and was a pensioner after the incident. Also, my father lived in the apartment building in front of where the truck was found (or so he says). Stuff of nightmares.
El yonke hora es un distribuidor de metales donde muchos herreros compran metal para los portones. Y la calle donde dejó la troka está bien cerca del puente libre.
Curious, do you know if there's elevated cancer rates in the area or anything? I'm from the Northeast US, and it's kind of accepted knowledge that you need to filter the hell out of your water in my state, since there's all sorts of nastiness in there. (I've lived on the eastern side and the western side of the state; the eastern side's water was orange, the western side's was brown.)
I grew up in an area that had a massive dam failure and I only learned about it from one of these videos. Most places don't want to advertise their embarrassing failures. The internet has been a wonderful place for learning about these (sometimes willfully) forgotten history lessons.
@@stuffedninja1337 I live in El Paso, TX. Well, not from that, at least not in the area. Part of the reason is the dumpster fire that is Asarco. It's a superfund site due to the insane amounts of lead, cadmium, and arsenic (plus a bunch of other stuff) that ended up all over the mountains and groundwater. Note: there are 26 of Asarco related superfund sites all over the US. So, yeah, determining increases of cancer rates or other health problems is rather difficult to pinpoint on a single problem.
I was a contractor working at Los Alamos in 1995. At that time, the version told to me was Los Alamos had ordered new wrought iron tables & chairs made of rebar for their outdoor break / lunch areas. But the delivery truck made a wrong turn and triggered the Radiation Detector at the Exit lane to the lab, while a load of dozens of rebar patio furniture was aboard the truck.
I have to say, I’ve been really into the jump in quality lately. The little trips you do to the UK based sites, the editing, the music you make for this series. Seeing these videos in my inbox is always a treat :D
You might have wanted to remind viewers that Cobalt-60 emits long distance, highly penetrating, gamma radiation that has to be blocked by very dense material like lead.
I love showing people how radioactive their basements are, it's crazy how many random things are radioactive. I swear someone is out there mixing radioactive material into concrete.
@Night60700 When I got my first Geiger counter I was disappointed how little radiation I found. It's an extra sensitive Geiger counter, too. If you really want it to go crazy take it with you on a flight. I've been told going to the garden section of a big store turns up radiation if you point it at the right bag of fertilizer. Hospitals have radiation too but you need a super expensive scintillating meter because it's mostly gamma and Geiger counters are really bad at detecting it.
Ooo I've been waiting for this one for a long time. I used to think this was an urban legend but once I researched it I was appalled at the sheer ignorance from authorities to the danger this event posed.
I did happen, i live in Juárez and i was 8 years old when the news was spread about this incident. This year i visited the confined zone in the desert that all found remains of the C060 were found and buried in 1985
Hello from France About accidents due to irradiation, you could talk about the irradiated people of Forbach (city in the north-east of France) where in 1991 two untrained workers intervened on a machine emitting ionizing rays, they were seriously irradiated. , one of them died in 2007 as a result of his injuries. There is at least one similarity with that of Mexico: the company had not declared its machine to the French authorities
I used to work at a Home Depot. I'd like to think that building materials are safe, but you make an excellent point about not looking at rebar the same again. I'd like to think we're past things like this happening, but I know we're not. We'll probably be extinct before we ever will be.
Speaking of being past it, as soon as I'm done reading comments, I'm checking if they've ever found that in Australia. I do hope we're past not knowing when a radiation source is lost.
@@AC-cg4be All you need is a detector badge, not a geiger counter. We all wore them when I worked at Argonne Lab. I believe the Chemistry lab had a shoe and hand detector everyone needed to use when leaving since they were actively handling radioactive materials.
Its really cool that you're doing a fundraiser for people with OCD! So many people only think of it as "gotta be clean and in order/balanced" disorder, but its so far from it. My OCD comes with contamination issues, horrible intrusive thoughts, needing to do things a specific way or else something terrible will happen, and obsessive thoughts related to skin picking and hair picking. When people use OCD in the way to refer to things needing to be just right, it actively contributes to our stigmatization and harm because then people forget it can be worse and it can mean not getting the help we need. Thank you for doing this
I use the old Freudian phrase, "anal retentive" for those of us who are nit-picky and like things just right. We can just shrug and walk away. OCD is something totally different and makes its sufferers anywhere from miserable to suicidal.
I have the same OCD issues you do. I have OCD since before puberty, but ever since 2020,the intrusive thought aspect ramped up like 1000%. I had quit my job after 9 yrs in 2020 because of burnout,and took my 401k money. Got rehired around Easter 2022. The time in between was very difficult, and even now I struggle to get ready for work because of the intrusive thoughts and contamination worries, and at times it leads to anxiety and panic bad enough to start screaming and hitting my head on the wall. I know there are worse things to go through,but I would not,could not ever for any reason morally WISH my OCD on anyone, especially anyone I could claim to "hate." I hope things go good with anyone here and everyone in general with this problem.
My father has worked for a steel mill for 20 years, but before that he was a nuclear electrician on USN submarines. I would never ever have thought those two occupations would collide in such a horrific way. Imagining radioactive contamination in a melt shop or foundry... Holy shit absolutely terrifying.
My dad worked in a custom metal fabrication shop from the late 60s up until the early 2000s. He passed away from metastatic lung cancer that spread all throughout his body and brain in 2003. Yeah, he was a heavy smoker, but I have sometimes wondered if he was ever exposed to radiation due to being around and working on the large sheets of steel, aluminium, and stainless that made up the bulk of the materials that the shop used. Just something I think about at 3 am, when I can’t sleep, and my mind is just relentlessly digging through old memories and worries. There’s no real reason to be concerned about his being possibly irradiated while working, but that kind of logic is kind of pointless to my obsessive mind and this idea sticks around for far longer than it ever should…
You gotta give it to John he illustrates these horrific accidents with such a levity providing ridiculous art and animation style. (5:58, 9:24 these were devastating xD)
I remember when I worked at an NDT company that did industrial X-rays. The boss had a firm rule that if anyone EVER put a source on the tailgate of one of the trucks they would be fired immediately. He told us that if we left a source behind at a job site, he'd be pissed but he could explain that to the customer. If a source camera tumbled off the tailgate of the truck on the highway then the crap show would be unbelievable.
The shirt I ordered from your shop showed up recently; it is a better-quality garment with better-quality printing on it than I expected and that's commendable.
Not really forgotten. My Mexican friend remembers that government building was 'hot'. she was surprised I knew about the accident and could tell her the building she referred too (even showed photo, thank you John) wasn't found to be radioactive.
Living in Northern Mexico in a city & state that did get some contaminated steel rebar, I also keep hearing stories about this "oh that building was buiilt from that" "oh that building they just demolished had steel from there". I'm sure those urban legends are just that, but at the same time, I 100% expect some places/homes to actually be hot and have people just not be aware of it. Having said that, with all the mines and agricultural regions near here, there's a whole bunch of other types of chemicals that will cause health issues that have nothing to do with ionizing radiation from Cobalt. Quite a few close family members have had some kind of leukemia that is "very strange/agressive/not well documented" but the timeframe would not align with known lost source accidents.
As always, a great video that we all look forward to. One suggestion, a video explaining the various radioactive measurements and severity of contamination would be greatly appreciated. I can't be the only one who is trying to figure if a Terrabecule is more or less than a ronkin? Maybe a video explaining via a comparison chart, if future videos you could flash the comparison chart when listing the contamination? Just a thought. EDIT: I'm not suggesting a detailed scientific graph, more along the lines of how the current scales are done.. 1. Being a light sunburn, 10. Being glow in the dark for the next millennium.
That might indeed make a nice video. Meanwhile for some wikipedia reading, these units are called "becquerel" (Bq) / "Terabecquerel" (TBq, trillions of becquerel) and "roentgen" (R). The former says how much radioactivity there is in - say - a lost device. The latter is about how much energy in the form of radiation something or someone received - it's considered outdated, these days for human exposure "gray" (Gy) is used. If a source given in Terabecquerel ends up where it shouldn't it's got potential to cause disaster, bad enough to make a PD video. If someone receives 1Gy she'll probably get sick, at 10Gy pretty certain dead. @PlainlyDifficult might indeed make something like a list of incidents with activity released and people with received dose and how they fared.
Ha, yes, the situation with units measuring stuff to do with radioactivity is incredibly confusing and hard to understand, and then there is extra confusion thrown in with multiple different units meaning more or less the same thing but with a different scale, thanks to different people / establishments / superpowers defining their own independently. It's very confusing, I've only got a basic understanding of which units mean what myself, I wouldn't mind a video covering what all these units mean. (Good luck John 😂)
The problem with trying to make a chart between radiation measurements is they basically don't convert between each other. Only some do sort of. The problem is they all measure it a different way. Becquerels measure something that's effective the potential energy of a radionuclide, how much radiation it can generate over it's life. Where as roentgen, sievert, rads, even CPM measure emitted radiation level in some way. Sievert, grays, and rads often are used to express absorbed dose. There are only vague conversions from one to the other based entirely of physically what is being measured. Roentgen is roughly the emitted energy within a specified volume of air, while sievert is based on health effects. So you can see how converting units is questionable. You kinda just have to research what they all mean individually
Agreed. Many have asked before. Got me thinking this naming confusion and complexity is another reason some are against nuclear power plants. An explainer for the layperson would be helpful.
I was an material inspector in a scrap yard, we have these huge radiation detectors in the entrance just before the weight station. In the three years I worked there it only sound once, and guess what it was from an old hospital being demolished
I don't comment on videos basically ever but as someone with OCD it makes me incredibly happy to see someone else bringing awareness and support to an extremely misunderstood and genuinely crippling disorder. Thank you for continuing to make great content.
I have OCD and it used to be really bad when I was younger. Luckily I live in Canada and was fortunate enough to have access to free healthcare which really saved my life. OCD can really be destructive to someones life and make it impossible for someone to function. What sucks is treatment is relatively straight forward but so many people dont have access to therapy or affordable medications which can be life changing. Thanks for supporting the cause as people who remain untreated tend to get worse and cant live a healthy and fulfilling life.
Tell me about it. I'm dealing w extreme OCD w fibromyalgia on top of esophageal and stomach cancer. I cant work and will be homeless soon. Take care of yourself❤
@@suchabadkitty1293 Im so sorry to hear that :( I hope things get better for you in the future even though you are dealing with alot more than I ever did. I know its cheesy but going through hard things does make you stronger and I hope u can make it through this
Glad to see someone finally made a video about this incident. I first learned about this when I saw a sign in an empty fenced lot in the middle of Hermosillo, Sonora Mexico, that stated that material contaminated with Cobalt 60 was buried on site. I did a little research and found some information on the internet explaining the whole incident, from start to finish. I was blown away that with all the unoccupied desert land outside the limits of the city, that they had buried the material very close to the original downtown area. Thanks for the video.
I've watched basically all of your videos and the little updates at the end about how weather currently looks for you always make me happy. It's such a tiny detail but it's so charming and I always look forward to it.
Thanks for your charity of choice today 🎉 our personalities are stigmatized as controlling and detached when OCD primarily manifests as intense stress and anxiety; the idea that we're suffering internally and need empathy to heal needs to be spoken of and accepted as a crucial step in overcoming this particular social stigma
I learned about this in college (University of Texas at El Paso, Texas). It was a passing discussion, so I didn't know all the details. Thanks for filling gaps with this video!
one of the very few Videos I always like before watching...and when it says "RADIATION", I'll even comment before starting the clip. I mean, Radiation! It doesn't get any better than this, Also, is it the Demon Core again? (Wink-Wink). LOVE your channel, please keep up the great work!
@@PlainlyDifficult Hey John, you're welcome, and since I had a few pennies to spare this month I just bought your Discography for a little real support, since as we all know, words are inexpensive...looking forward to listening to the tracks while gaming. You have a good one, from a sunny and cold corner of Hamburg, Germany...
Hot damn, this was a scary one! Without that accidental wrong turn, so many people would get cancer and other afflicttions without anybody ever suspecting hidden radiation as the cause.
@@fensoxx I have, I wouldn't suggest it. I swear someone is out there mixing radioactive material into concrete. It's amazing how many walls are radioactive.
@@Night60700 yeah, I’ve wondered that. I’d probably end up in a puddle of anxiety with a tinfoil hat on. Thanks for taking a hit for the team and doing it for us. 😊
I have a small craft tin of Humbrol luminescent paint. It's many years old now and resides in my summer house high up. Thousands of these tins were sold before they were banned. So far after maybe 60 years there has not been any probelms but it is getting fainter and no longer lights up the village I live in.
Absolute rubbish. Half life only affects radiation emitted per unit mass of the material, in this case cobalt 60. You still have to factor in how close you are to the source and how much cobalt 60 happens to be in your table stand, or the rebar in your wall. If your item, or home, has a lot of cobalt 60 in it, or the item is close to where you spend a lot of time (like where you sleep), then the risk will be substantial even after several half lives have elapsed.
I know it's already been a couple of months since this came out, but I just discovered this channel through the Demon Core video, after watching the one that Kyle Hill made on the subject. I have to say, after just a couple of videos I decided to stick around. John seems to put a lot of effort into his stories and he researches the topics very well. Subbed!
You should do the similar 1982 incident in Taiwan where a Co-60 source was melted with scrap and found its way into steel rebar used in hundreds of buildings. I've seen it frequently mentioned, but no good summary of exactly what happened. A good research project.
I always look forward to viewing a new episode of Plainly Difficult and wanted to compliment you on the great flow of each episode and the opening theme music really sets the pace and temperature for each ensuing disaster
Or dont blow up big enough to get the views to become known. Like they lose a nuclear bomb and when they look and look and cant find it they tell us "so we lost a nuke off the coast" but you know if they done found the nuke theyda been acting like it never went missin 😂😂
John, I appreciate the inimitable way you've formed a contraction of the words "Plainly Difficult." Every time I hear it, I try to do it. I try, and I fail.
Been watching Plainly Difficult videos for years. Despite having been 5yo living just miles from this in El Paso TX, I'd never heard this story. My house that I grew up is nearly visible in the last aerial shot of the USMX / El Paso / Ciudad Juarez. So very very close to home with this one.
Back in the 1980s, there was a string of incidents around South East Queensland, Australia where radioactive sand was used in playgrounds, sand pits, school ovals and sports fields. The sand had been supplied by a sand mining company on North Stradbroke Island who extracted rutile and sold the spoil. All the playgrounds, pitches, etc had to be dug up and rebuilt at enormous expense.
My man, you're the block of sugar that I put in my dark coffee, right on time for the ol' cup o'joe and on my day off, your videos in the (East coast) morning are a true treat!
Great video John. My son and I have been subscribed for a few years now and we love watching your channel. He is 10 now. We will have great memories together and you are a part of them. Lol. Thanks so much for your amazing content. ❤
@@PlainlyDifficult ... it's amazing how strangers can impact people's lives. You never know how your influence can affect the world. Big or small. You are sweet. Keep up the great work!
The case was commented in the Mexican press at the time but, as mentioned quickly forgotten, until a couple of years ago, when the construction of the new México city airport relatively near the radiactive contaiment site where the old reinforcement bars are still located, bring back interest in them, again briefly.
I know this story from start to end and I am amazed that you haven't covered it yet. Nuclear facility gets accidental visit by truck unknowingly carrying nuclear materiel ENTERING the site sets off alarms sets the investigation into motion revealing contamination throughout steel items from furniture to building materials
Another quality documentary!!! Wish I could have caught it yesterday but keep it up bro. You are so close to 1 million subs…you deserve it for all your hardwork.
Man I love being apart of your community, in just 16 hours $2000 was raised for your fundraiser, try those numbers on any other "niche" channel. Keep up the great content plainly, and supporting and communicating with your community like a true hearted youtuber!
Scary that they scrapped so many buildings but the other 10% of known material missing was just given up on. Who knows where in the US there's rebar with nice shiny cobalt 60 in them
Just watched a bunch of radiological disaster stuff on Kyle Hill's channel under the playlist title "Half-life Histories." According to what I learned there, this would be called an "orphan" source of radioactive materials, and it happens a LOT more than people know, and they REALLY should as it's estimated that, just in the United States, one orphan source is created every single day, usually, but not always, from old forgotten medical equipment. They're mostly not cracked open, and nothing usually comes of them, but the potential for disaster is more prevalent than most people know. Sleep well, everybody!
MY CITY MY CITY MY CITY YAAAAAAAY- /dies of radiation poisoning/ Fun fact: There’s an abandoned hotel construction here not far from where I live. There’s no clear reason as to why that happened, but one of the rumors includes metal used for construction being contaminated with Cobalt-60.
I'm Australian and we were all pretty fascinated/appalled by the loss of the source here. I hope you will eventually do a video on it if you can work out what happened. I have no idea how it could have been lost. My mother recently had to swallow a radioactive iodine pill for thyroid cancer and that was delivered inside three nesting cases with two attendants. And this only a pill with quite different radiation. We don't have nuclear power plants here (one medical reactor) so it's all very serious here... It's bananas that a radioactive security specialty company just had the pellet fall out of a truck. If you can make sense of it I'd love to see a video about it. ☺️ I really enjoy your videos.
My brother once applied for a job as a service technician for maintaining linear accelerators at a hospital specialising in cancer treatment. The man there told him how linear accelerators due to their increased technical capabilities were putting isotopes (at least the kind you don't swallow) out of favor due to the stringent safety measures involved with delivering a new source. The hospital in question was inside a neighbourhood, and required an army-style of several safety cordons for delivery, with residents being ordered to stay inside, the complete evacuation of the wards that the source would pass through on it's way to the actual installation point, and weeks of planning ahead of the transport itself. I can imagine people being fascinated and appalled at the same time, I honestly also don't understand how they could've lost it. Especially the thing that the newspaper mentioned here that it escaped the containment container in which it was relatively harmless...and also, that the containment container would've made it far larger than the pellet alone was now...
@@Dutch3DMaster I've done a little research into how it was lost since I posted that comment, and like other lost sources, it appears part of the problem was a lack of training for the staff. They didn't realise how dangerous it could be. The part that the source was housed in was apparently just left loose inside a truck, and then they drove a vast distance (1400km/870m) to the nearest city with it rattling away. It's unclear but perhaps the part rattled itself apart, and then it just.... fell out onto the highway. Unbelievable. The part was tiny too, 6x7mm. I wonder what has happened to those staff and their bosses.... 😂 But the company lost their contract!
As always thanks for the content that is always top notch! Keep it up mate 🍻 Edit: I have learned from TH-cam, if I ever find myself owning a scrap yard, rule one will be. Always carry a Geiger counter!!!
@@Night60700 wouldn't own a scrap yard to beginning with, I'd be the guy there because he's cleaning a neighborhood yard and brings sh*t home to make into "something" that really just makes his wife pissed lol 👌
@@joeyr7294 Metal absorbs and holds onto radiation. My bed tests above background. I've learned to live with it, but I'll never look at a basement or a concrete wall the same way ever again.
T'was a super juicy episode. Thanks for the telling of it. I loved the animation of the truck turning right into the forbidden area as it unspaghettified around the corner ^.^ And the f ucke d made me chuckle. All round great video, John. :D
Wohooo! Cobalt-60 Juarez incident! Two radiation incidents from my country:3 ... You gotta check the gas explosions of Guadalajara City and the Pemex explosions of San Juanico too, the last one was outside Mexico City's capital
It's wild to me that the Cobolt-60 in a single teletherapy unit could be diluted into tons of steel and still be concentrated enough to be dangerous. I do wonder if we have more radiation detectors now. I've heard about radiotherapy patients setting off detectors driving in and out of certain large cities.
"Some companies." Hahaha. Only some. That's funny. Oh, and "companies" do not feel. The humans who run them don't either, since they are all sociopaths. So, yeah, no feels anywhere to be found.
Great video! I learned about this example in one of my master’s courses. I’m sure if this video was around during that semester this would have been apart of it.
Yo 656 reporting, thanks for talking about this, only people from Juárez and some foreign states here in México know about this. There is also many stories about famous people coming here to have a good time, like Al Capone, Marilyn Monroe, Jim Morrison and some politicians. Blessings from Juárez bro
Don’t think I’ve noticed the radiation detectors when I passed through the labs out there on NM highway 4 but that makes sense as to why there’s radiation detectors at scrap yards that coincidentally ended up flagging us for having some hot scrap metal from a site we tore down near Abilene 🙊 I wonder if maybe some of those pieces ended up having the same origin 🫠
Anyone knows what happened to the company from Fort Worth, Texas who exported the teletheraphy machine? They were also responsible for this radiation incident. I love your videos about orphan sources!
The horrifying thing is that this happens all of the time without anybody knowing the difference. So, if your new patio furniture glows in the dark call the authorities.
By now you would expect steel mills to have radiation monitoring at the scrap entry gates, and maybe even at the furnace pour channels. Anybody knows if this is an industry "best practice"?
I can only tell you that German scrapyards mostly have radiation detection at the entrance. However there were several smal scandals with contaminated steel in the last 10 years. One large German company had radiactive switches because the casing was made out of contaminated steel
Loved the sass in this one. If anything, if one of us ever succumbs to radiation sickness: 1, we'll have you to thank for knowing it. 2, we'll be proud and terrified to be featured in a Plainly Difficult production.
@@tabeechey -- The newspapers have so overblown the risk of cancer and other issues from PVC that it's practically criminal. The cancer risk increase is only through ingestion, no one has eaten the stuff from the rail disaster, and even if they did it''s a far lower cancer risk than many things we used every single day. The smoke from the flames was the real risk because of the volatile byproducts created, not PVC itself, and that risk is well past and gone. Odds are very good the water you drink every day came out of a PVC pipe.
@HadToChangeMyName_TH-camSucks I agree that news coverage has been dramatic (it usually tends to be, drama sells!). I am more concerned about ingestion through water than anything else at this point, and more so for people who use well water. So much has to do with dose and duration of exposure, though, and the good news is nobody is going to be eager to eat local fish. I find it rather odd that we are up in arms about this specific instance when contamination of food, water, and air is a pretty pervasive issue in the modern era. Rail crashes are just one avenue of exposure, and I'd argue we should be far more enraged by cases like Flint, where government entities failed in oversight and management and far more people were impacted in direct and clear ways. Until we see something like a liver cancer cluster that is atypical in East Palestine, it will be difficult to fully distinguish many diseases as directly related to the derailment. We should care, but we should be generally concerned about all forms of exposure and demand improved safety and communication systems throughout various industries.
I've not forgotten this accident, our school district's science teachers, went around checking, tables and chairs with Geiger counters, because somehow they thought the new desks and chairs bought were made from contaminated material. Then there was the incident with the gold wedding bands sold by either J. C Penny's, Montgomery Wards or Sears and Roebuck, that somehow radiation for cancer treatment gold pellets wound up in the ingot /jewlery manufacturing realm... This story reminds me of a story I heard from an Idaho Falls acquaintance, a manager at the National Lab had a Geiger counters on the seat next to him as he was driving home. He noticed every once in a while it would go off. It took him a while, but apparently they figured out that a reactor housing had a crack and was radiating, like a flashlight held up to a keyhole. Don't know how something like that could go unnoticed, or that a beam of radiation could be detected miles away....
A good case for having truck stops for weighing at the entrance and exit as well as before large population centers have radiation monitoring/detection equipment As well as at every boarder crossing in the US/Canada/Mexico or basically all of north and central America.... Well and Europe...and Asia... Basically everywhere... Just adding 4 per interstate highway (near a states enterance, exit, and another 2 random ones) is not a bad idea for the cost Or just adding them to any international crossing and truck weigh station... It doesn't cost much in comparison to the problems it can solve, and since trucks have to stop at open weight stations, and since it's pretty passive to do (e.g. just have it by the scale) it wouldn't be hard to implement
It would actually be a interesting game if each viewer who owns a Geiger counter would try to find the most radioactive thing within a radius of 5/10 kilometers around their homes
Ooof, I'll file this in horror, because you can now imagine all the missing sources that are still out there, could still end up in industrial forging or recycling plants, coming then back to us... I kinda want a radiation detector now. :P
This is my absolute favorite channel on TH-cam. Psst, the weather in London UK seems to be always doing the same thing at the same time that the weather in Wenatchee Washington is doing. Psst, my comment is number 420.
The "wrong turn" is very suspect. I wonder if he knew what he had, and wanted to sell it? Or else to make contact with someone in the facility? It's just WAY too improbable to be a mistake.
According to some other comments routing through that area isn't great as they have had navigation systems try to get them to drive straight through the secured area of Los Alamos so it's definitely possible that it's just poorly signed and way to easy to make a single bad turn and end up exactly where you don't want to be
seems like a pretty good example to why importing radiation equipment needs to be registered oh and also probably that ironworks should check for radiation
Thanks for watching!
Have any more video suggestions let’s me
Know I’m the comments
It would be awesome if you covered the Maralinga and Montebello Island Nuclear tests the UK did down here that contaminated Melbourne and huge areas of farmland. Even to this day there is Plutonium and other fission product hotspots still being found! At the time my father was working in Melbourne for Kodak Film, and for days they had to stop production as the radiation detectors were pegged due to the fallout.
John, love the content. I’m the comments too!!😊
Hey, your two source links to the NRC are broken.
What happened in Australia this year?? please
@@deadzio It is nice to have it read out tho when you are just listening to the episode sort of as a podcast and not watching it as a Video.
How fortuitous it was to drive to the only radiation detector in the area.
Very lucky
Makes you wonder how much goes on no one finds out about. Although after this our local scrap yards have had to install radiation detectors. They were finding radioactive contaminated scrap metal on all kinds of stuff. Our trigger was a bridge section that left the scrap yard in a pickle
@@bobbysenterprises3220 that’s exactly what I was thinking.
What an almighty cock-up. Also shows the potency of any potential “dirty” weapon that govts may have already come up with..
These horrible incidents illustrate perhaps that one could do serious damage to a country’s infrastructure through injudicously placed bio/chemical weaponry.
Great vid as always.
@@bobbysenterprises3220 The trail of sick and dying is hard to miss inside a city, but in a rural area away from hospitals, people can just disappear without a known cause.
@@AcesAndNates Fortitudinous neans strong.
Fortuitous means happening by accident or chance rather than design.
Considering that this incident was only found out by a fluke, I wonder how many other similar incidents have gone unnoticed.
Too many to worry about!
@Andree Hoolihan "Radiation hormesis" is institutionally suppressed by the "conventional" theory paradigm of "Linear No Threshold".
LNT is ***NOT*** science based and is espoused by those who refuse to actually do research on how dangerous various forms of radiation ACTUALLY are. They impute danger where there MAY be danger but REFUSE to test the hypothesis because it threatens.... something? They are part of a "Science priesthood" or "Scientific Theocracy" that one is not "allowed" to question. It is the same way we got "Fats are bad" for forty plus years. One was simply not ALLOWED to question the premise that it might be related to whole diet.
Weston Price is an example of this. He was vilified for thirty plus years by the American Heart Association. To this day they do not FULLY admit that they were acting in a way contrary to ACTUAL SCIENTIFIC priciples.
But hey.... RaDiAtIoN sCaRy!!!! .... right....
Had a radioactive rock in my college had to be removed and placed in a lead lined box. Professors didn’t even know it was radioactive or how long it had been at the college.
This is why I own a Geiger counter!
I live in Hungary, if i find someone with a working radiation detector i can check. I live in a flat next to an abandoned concrete panel factory, railway yard and the city has an abandoned coal power plant dating back to the late 1800s.
Plus a few missile bases and a soviet air traffic control bunker around.
It would be interesting to see if there are slightly abnormal radiation levels anywhere.
Oh dear God. I have worked at a recycled steel mill (melting steel scrap into structural steel) and every truck going in went through a rad detector.
This is a dumpster 🔥🚒🚛.
Thanks John!
Yup, this is the event that caused the us scrap industry to install scintillation detectors everywhere...
@@bigtexuntex7825 i wonder how often they run into one of these pieces of rebar being recycled.
@@alexdrockhound9497 they are surprisingly common, I was dropping a load at a scrap yard in UT a few years ago and the truck Infront of me set off the radiation detector, the eventually found the specific piece of scrap that set it off, it was a section of a 5" pipe this guy had found at an abandoned mine site on the backside of his property that he was cleaning
There was also a video fairly recently from a magnet fishing channel that they hauled up some radioactive steel, I think it was a small I beam
Maybe it was this incident that caused the mill to install them!
As result of this, the entire scrap industry in the us has sensitive scintillation detectors in key places... like front gates. Anywhere material enters a foundry. It may be forgotten to the public, but it isnt forgotten, it is easily and cheaply prevented.
I was born in Juarez and always heard horror stories about this. One uncle worked in the Yonke Fénix and was a pensioner after the incident. Also, my father lived in the apartment building in front of where the truck was found (or so he says). Stuff of nightmares.
El yonke hora es un distribuidor de metales donde muchos herreros compran metal para los portones. Y la calle donde dejó la troka está bien cerca del puente libre.
WTH? I've lived across the border from Juarez my whole life and I've not heard of this incident. Thank for you for educating me. ❤️
Curious, do you know if there's elevated cancer rates in the area or anything? I'm from the Northeast US, and it's kind of accepted knowledge that you need to filter the hell out of your water in my state, since there's all sorts of nastiness in there. (I've lived on the eastern side and the western side of the state; the eastern side's water was orange, the western side's was brown.)
I grew up in an area that had a massive dam failure and I only learned about it from one of these videos. Most places don't want to advertise their embarrassing failures. The internet has been a wonderful place for learning about these (sometimes willfully) forgotten history lessons.
@@stuffedninja1337 I live in El Paso, TX. Well, not from that, at least not in the area. Part of the reason is the dumpster fire that is Asarco. It's a superfund site due to the insane amounts of lead, cadmium, and arsenic (plus a bunch of other stuff) that ended up all over the mountains and groundwater. Note: there are 26 of Asarco related superfund sites all over the US. So, yeah, determining increases of cancer rates or other health problems is rather difficult to pinpoint on a single problem.
OMG me too! I lived here in El Paso all my life, and I never would've guessed that such an incident happened right nearby!
Because the mexican goverment is corrupt and most of the time they will evade giving answers of past or recent events that makes them look incompetent
I was a contractor working at Los Alamos in 1995. At that time, the version told to me was Los Alamos had ordered new wrought iron tables & chairs made of rebar for their outdoor break / lunch areas. But the delivery truck made a wrong turn and triggered the Radiation Detector at the Exit lane to the lab, while a load of dozens of rebar patio furniture was aboard the truck.
You know something’s wrong when your neighbor’s patio furniture emits a greenish glow.🧐
I have to say, I’ve been really into the jump in quality lately. The little trips you do to the UK based sites, the editing, the music you make for this series. Seeing these videos in my inbox is always a treat :D
and the fact he puts his videos in Creative Commons, he's a man of education that's for sure!
You might have wanted to remind viewers that Cobalt-60 emits long distance, highly penetrating, gamma radiation that has to be blocked by very dense material like lead.
I love showing people how radioactive their basements are, it's crazy how many random things are radioactive. I swear someone is out there mixing radioactive material into concrete.
@@tripplefives1402 I always figured it's from radium from radon decay.
@Night60700 When I got my first Geiger counter I was disappointed how little radiation I found. It's an extra sensitive Geiger counter, too. If you really want it to go crazy take it with you on a flight. I've been told going to the garden section of a big store turns up radiation if you point it at the right bag of fertilizer. Hospitals have radiation too but you need a super expensive scintillating meter because it's mostly gamma and Geiger counters are really bad at detecting it.
@@davebrunker3399 "I was disappointed how little radiation I found". I've never read that before.
Steel is good material for blocking gamma rays also.
Ooo I've been waiting for this one for a long time. I used to think this was an urban legend but once I researched it I was appalled at the sheer ignorance from authorities to the danger this event posed.
It's mexico
One of the most corrupt countries in America. Sadly everything is possible there
Strap in.
"Ignorance from authorities" gonna be a theme, since back then, now, and through the future.
I did happen, i live in Juárez and i was 8 years old when the news was spread about this incident. This year i visited the confined zone in the desert that all found remains of the C060 were found and buried in 1985
Hello from France
About accidents due to irradiation, you could talk about the irradiated people of Forbach (city in the north-east of France) where in 1991 two untrained workers intervened on a machine emitting ionizing rays, they were seriously irradiated. , one of them died in 2007 as a result of his injuries. There is at least one similarity with that of Mexico: the company had not declared its machine to the French authorities
I used to work at a Home Depot. I'd like to think that building materials are safe, but you make an excellent point about not looking at rebar the same again. I'd like to think we're past things like this happening, but I know we're not. We'll probably be extinct before we ever will be.
Speaking of being past it, as soon as I'm done reading comments, I'm checking if they've ever found that in Australia. I do hope we're past not knowing when a radiation source is lost.
Start taking a Geiger counter into work with you, I guess.
nowadays foundries have radiation detectors on input and output
@@piotrcurious1131 foundries in some countries
@@AC-cg4be All you need is a detector badge, not a geiger counter. We all wore them when I worked at Argonne Lab. I believe the Chemistry lab had a shoe and hand detector everyone needed to use when leaving since they were actively handling radioactive materials.
Its really cool that you're doing a fundraiser for people with OCD! So many people only think of it as "gotta be clean and in order/balanced" disorder, but its so far from it. My OCD comes with contamination issues, horrible intrusive thoughts, needing to do things a specific way or else something terrible will happen, and obsessive thoughts related to skin picking and hair picking. When people use OCD in the way to refer to things needing to be just right, it actively contributes to our stigmatization and harm because then people forget it can be worse and it can mean not getting the help we need. Thank you for doing this
I use the old Freudian phrase, "anal retentive" for those of us who are nit-picky and like things just right. We can just shrug and walk away. OCD is something totally different and makes its sufferers anywhere from miserable to suicidal.
@@pfadiva yeah! Thats one I hear a lot from people who know better. Its accurate, even if the name is a bit odd akshdkhd
OCD ruined a good 20 years of my life - and no it did not involve meticulous or cleaning obsessions 🙄🧐
@@DavidCurryFilms I HEAR THAT! Between cancer and OCD, Im heading for homelessness😥
I have the same OCD issues you do. I have OCD since before puberty, but ever since 2020,the intrusive thought aspect ramped up like 1000%. I had quit my job after 9 yrs in 2020 because of burnout,and took my 401k money. Got rehired around Easter 2022. The time in between was very difficult, and even now I struggle to get ready for work because of the intrusive thoughts and contamination worries, and at times it leads to anxiety and panic bad enough to start screaming and hitting my head on the wall. I know there are worse things to go through,but I would not,could not ever for any reason morally WISH my OCD on anyone, especially anyone I could claim to "hate."
I hope things go good with anyone here and everyone in general with this problem.
My father has worked for a steel mill for 20 years, but before that he was a nuclear electrician on USN submarines.
I would never ever have thought those two occupations would collide in such a horrific way. Imagining radioactive contamination in a melt shop or foundry... Holy shit absolutely terrifying.
I make steel parts that become radioactive in use. We don't do warranty jobs.
My dad worked in a custom metal fabrication shop from the late 60s up until the early 2000s. He passed away from metastatic lung cancer that spread all throughout his body and brain in 2003. Yeah, he was a heavy smoker, but I have sometimes wondered if he was ever exposed to radiation due to being around and working on the large sheets of steel, aluminium, and stainless that made up the bulk of the materials that the shop used.
Just something I think about at 3 am, when I can’t sleep, and my mind is just relentlessly digging through old memories and worries. There’s no real reason to be concerned about his being possibly irradiated while working, but that kind of logic is kind of pointless to my obsessive mind and this idea sticks around for far longer than it ever should…
You gotta give it to John he illustrates these horrific accidents with such a levity providing ridiculous art and animation style. (5:58, 9:24 these were devastating xD)
Thank you
Don't forget 12:50
100%!
@@WouldntULikeToKnow. 8:50 is even better given the context
I remember when I worked at an NDT company that did industrial X-rays. The boss had a firm rule that if anyone EVER put a source on the tailgate of one of the trucks they would be fired immediately. He told us that if we left a source behind at a job site, he'd be pissed but he could explain that to the customer. If a source camera tumbled off the tailgate of the truck on the highway then the crap show would be unbelievable.
The shirt I ordered from your shop showed up recently; it is a better-quality garment with better-quality printing on it than I expected and that's commendable.
Not really forgotten. My Mexican friend remembers that government building was 'hot'. she was surprised I knew about the accident and could tell her the building she referred too (even showed photo, thank you John) wasn't found to be radioactive.
Living in Northern Mexico in a city & state that did get some contaminated steel rebar, I also keep hearing stories about this "oh that building was buiilt from that" "oh that building they just demolished had steel from there". I'm sure those urban legends are just that, but at the same time, I 100% expect some places/homes to actually be hot and have people just not be aware of it.
Having said that, with all the mines and agricultural regions near here, there's a whole bunch of other types of chemicals that will cause health issues that have nothing to do with ionizing radiation from Cobalt. Quite a few close family members have had some kind of leukemia that is "very strange/agressive/not well documented" but the timeframe would not align with known lost source accidents.
As always, a great video that we all look forward to.
One suggestion, a video explaining the various radioactive measurements and severity of contamination would be greatly appreciated.
I can't be the only one who is trying to figure if a Terrabecule is more or less than a ronkin? Maybe a video explaining via a comparison chart, if future videos you could flash the comparison chart when listing the contamination?
Just a thought.
EDIT:
I'm not suggesting a detailed scientific graph, more along the lines of how the current scales are done..
1. Being a light sunburn,
10. Being glow in the dark for the next millennium.
That might indeed make a nice video. Meanwhile for some wikipedia reading, these units are called "becquerel" (Bq) / "Terabecquerel" (TBq, trillions of becquerel) and "roentgen" (R). The former says how much radioactivity there is in - say - a lost device. The latter is about how much energy in the form of radiation something or someone received - it's considered outdated, these days for human exposure "gray" (Gy) is used. If a source given in Terabecquerel ends up where it shouldn't it's got potential to cause disaster, bad enough to make a PD video. If someone receives 1Gy she'll probably get sick, at 10Gy pretty certain dead. @PlainlyDifficult might indeed make something like a list of incidents with activity released and people with received dose and how they fared.
Ha, yes, the situation with units measuring stuff to do with radioactivity is incredibly confusing and hard to understand, and then there is extra confusion thrown in with multiple different units meaning more or less the same thing but with a different scale, thanks to different people / establishments / superpowers defining their own independently.
It's very confusing, I've only got a basic understanding of which units mean what myself, I wouldn't mind a video covering what all these units mean. (Good luck John 😂)
The problem with trying to make a chart between radiation measurements is they basically don't convert between each other. Only some do sort of. The problem is they all measure it a different way. Becquerels measure something that's effective the potential energy of a radionuclide, how much radiation it can generate over it's life. Where as roentgen, sievert, rads, even CPM measure emitted radiation level in some way. Sievert, grays, and rads often are used to express absorbed dose. There are only vague conversions from one to the other based entirely of physically what is being measured. Roentgen is roughly the emitted energy within a specified volume of air, while sievert is based on health effects. So you can see how converting units is questionable. You kinda just have to research what they all mean individually
Agreed. Many have asked before. Got me thinking this naming confusion and complexity is another reason some are against nuclear power plants. An explainer for the layperson would be helpful.
"It's gonna be a dumpster fire" LMAO I love the truck graphics/animations, especially the truck driving into the plant and turning
I was an material inspector in a scrap yard, we have these huge radiation detectors in the entrance just before the weight station. In the three years I worked there it only sound once, and guess what it was from an old hospital being demolished
I think my neighbor has a radioactive clock, I can detect it when I walk by their house.
They definety demolished it with the cobalt 60 machines still in it is my guess
I don't comment on videos basically ever but as someone with OCD it makes me incredibly happy to see someone else bringing awareness and support to an extremely misunderstood and genuinely crippling disorder. Thank you for continuing to make great content.
I have OCD and it used to be really bad when I was younger. Luckily I live in Canada and was fortunate enough to have access to free healthcare which really saved my life. OCD can really be destructive to someones life and make it impossible for someone to function. What sucks is treatment is relatively straight forward but so many people dont have access to therapy or affordable medications which can be life changing. Thanks for supporting the cause as people who remain untreated tend to get worse and cant live a healthy and fulfilling life.
Tell me about it. I'm dealing w extreme OCD w fibromyalgia on top of esophageal and stomach cancer. I cant work and will be homeless soon. Take care of yourself❤
Until they decide its cheaper for the state to just kill us.
@@suchabadkitty1293 Im so sorry to hear that :( I hope things get better for you in the future even though you are dealing with alot more than I ever did. I know its cheesy but going through hard things does make you stronger and I hope u can make it through this
Same here brother
Glad to see someone finally made a video about this incident. I first learned about this when I saw a sign in an empty fenced lot in the middle of Hermosillo, Sonora Mexico, that stated that material contaminated with Cobalt 60 was buried on site. I did a little research and found some information on the internet explaining the whole incident, from start to finish. I was blown away that with all the unoccupied desert land outside the limits of the city, that they had buried the material very close to the original downtown area. Thanks for the video.
I've watched basically all of your videos and the little updates at the end about how weather currently looks for you always make me happy. It's such a tiny detail but it's so charming and I always look forward to it.
This channel is gold. There is an obvious effort and quality and went into this.
When the word "radiation" is in the title of a PD offering it is truly OG Gold! Thanks John from Canada 🇨🇦
Thank you for watching
Thanks for your charity of choice today 🎉 our personalities are stigmatized as controlling and detached when OCD primarily manifests as intense stress and anxiety; the idea that we're suffering internally and need empathy to heal needs to be spoken of and accepted as a crucial step in overcoming this particular social stigma
Indeed.
ABSOLUTELY!!!
I like the cheeky graphics and how you use them stylishly and effectively
I learned about this in college (University of Texas at El Paso, Texas). It was a passing discussion, so I didn't know all the details. Thanks for filling gaps with this video!
one of the very few Videos I always like before watching...and when it says "RADIATION", I'll even comment before starting the clip. I mean, Radiation! It doesn't get any better than this, Also, is it the Demon Core again? (Wink-Wink). LOVE your channel, please keep up the great work!
Thank you
@@PlainlyDifficult Hey John, you're welcome, and since I had a few pennies to spare this month I just bought your Discography for a little real support, since as we all know, words are inexpensive...looking forward to listening to the tracks while gaming. You have a good one, from a sunny and cold corner of Hamburg, Germany...
On the "Found by Chance" scale this one scores somewhat above average.....
😂😂
Hot damn, this was a scary one! Without that accidental wrong turn, so many people would get cancer and other afflicttions without anybody ever suspecting hidden radiation as the cause.
Almost makes me want to buy a Geiger counter and scan my home and place of work. What the hell.
@@fensoxx same
@@fensoxx I have, I wouldn't suggest it. I swear someone is out there mixing radioactive material into concrete. It's amazing how many walls are radioactive.
@@Night60700 yeah, I’ve wondered that. I’d probably end up in a puddle of anxiety with a tinfoil hat on. Thanks for taking a hit for the team and doing it for us. 😊
@@fensoxx Everything metal will test above background. I had to convince my neighbor that dying in a fire was worse than having smoke detectors.
I have a small craft tin of Humbrol luminescent paint. It's many years old now and resides in my summer house high up. Thousands of these tins were sold before they were banned. So far after maybe 60 years there has not been any probelms but it is getting fainter and no longer lights up the village I live in.
On a positive note, CO60 has a half life of just over five years, so by now any undiscovered pieces should be mostly harmless.
From this incidence, , but what about all the others?
In 10 years, the radiation is 1/4. In 20 years, it's 1/16. In 30 years it's 1/64. That is STILL pretty strong, considering long term exposure.
If one@@princeofcupspoc9073
There was another accident with cobalt that was 19yrs old. 5 people died from exposure to it
Absolute rubbish. Half life only affects radiation emitted per unit mass of the material, in this case cobalt 60. You still have to factor in how close you are to the source and how much cobalt 60 happens to be in your table stand, or the rebar in your wall. If your item, or home, has a lot of cobalt 60 in it, or the item is close to where you spend a lot of time (like where you sleep), then the risk will be substantial even after several half lives have elapsed.
This story is truly nuts. One of your best videos ever. Thank you.
man your content is just plainly up there for some of the most enjoyable content that i still learn from!
Thank you
I know it's already been a couple of months since this came out, but I just discovered this channel through the Demon Core video, after watching the one that Kyle Hill made on the subject.
I have to say, after just a couple of videos I decided to stick around.
John seems to put a lot of effort into his stories and he researches the topics very well.
Subbed!
You should do the similar 1982 incident in Taiwan where a Co-60 source was melted with scrap and found its way into steel rebar used in hundreds of buildings. I've seen it frequently mentioned, but no good summary of exactly what happened. A good research project.
I always look forward to viewing a new episode of Plainly Difficult and wanted to compliment you on the great flow of each episode and the opening theme music really sets the pace and temperature for each ensuing disaster
It makes you wonder how many incidents like this go undetected.
I suggest never buying a good Geiger counter, it's just nightmare fuel, you'll never look at a basement the same way.
Or dont blow up big enough to get the views to become known. Like they lose a nuclear bomb and when they look and look and cant find it they tell us "so we lost a nuke off the coast" but you know if they done found the nuke theyda been acting like it never went missin 😂😂
John, I appreciate the inimitable way you've formed a contraction of the words "Plainly Difficult." Every time I hear it, I try to do it. I try, and I fail.
Been watching Plainly Difficult videos for years. Despite having been 5yo living just miles from this in El Paso TX, I'd never heard this story. My house that I grew up is nearly visible in the last aerial shot of the USMX / El Paso / Ciudad Juarez. So very very close to home with this one.
Back in the 1980s, there was a string of incidents around South East Queensland, Australia where radioactive sand was used in playgrounds, sand pits, school ovals and sports fields. The sand had been supplied by a sand mining company on North Stradbroke Island who extracted rutile and sold the spoil. All the playgrounds, pitches, etc had to be dug up and rebuilt at enormous expense.
"I will never look the same at a piece of rebar"
You and me both John... I thought it would have gotten stopped before getting that far... Damn.
Keep in mind most basements are 10 to 20 times background Radon is fun.
My man, you're the block of sugar that I put in my dark coffee, right on time for the ol' cup o'joe and on my day off, your videos in the (East coast) morning are a true treat!
Thank you
@@PlainlyDifficult and thank you as always
Great video John. My son and I have been subscribed for a few years now and we love watching your channel. He is 10 now. We will have great memories together and you are a part of them. Lol. Thanks so much for your amazing content. ❤
Wow, thank you! I really appreciate that!
@@PlainlyDifficult ... it's amazing how strangers can impact people's lives. You never know how your influence can affect the world. Big or small. You are sweet. Keep up the great work!
The case was commented in the Mexican press at the time but, as mentioned quickly forgotten, until a couple of years ago, when the construction of the new México city airport relatively near the radiactive contaiment site where the old reinforcement bars are still located, bring back interest in them, again briefly.
I know this story from start to end and I am amazed that you haven't covered it yet.
Nuclear facility gets accidental visit by truck unknowingly carrying nuclear materiel ENTERING the site sets off alarms sets the investigation into motion revealing contamination throughout steel items from furniture to building materials
Another quality documentary!!! Wish I could have caught it yesterday but keep it up bro. You are so close to 1 million subs…you deserve it for all your hardwork.
Very interesting documentary, amazing video!
Thank you
Man I love being apart of your community, in just 16 hours $2000 was raised for your fundraiser, try those numbers on any other "niche" channel. Keep up the great content plainly, and supporting and communicating with your community like a true hearted youtuber!
Scary that they scrapped so many buildings but the other 10% of known material missing was just given up on. Who knows where in the US there's rebar with nice shiny cobalt 60 in them
I bet some of that last 10% isnt only in usa it could be in south america or anywhere man.
I love that these videos can be listened to like any other documentary series, but the animations sprinkled in is worth it to watch them!
Thank you
Just watched a bunch of radiological disaster stuff on Kyle Hill's channel under the playlist title "Half-life Histories." According to what I learned there, this would be called an "orphan" source of radioactive materials, and it happens a LOT more than people know, and they REALLY should as it's estimated that, just in the United States, one orphan source is created every single day, usually, but not always, from old forgotten medical equipment. They're mostly not cracked open, and nothing usually comes of them, but the potential for disaster is more prevalent than most people know.
Sleep well, everybody!
Nice episode! One of your best presented and animated yet imho. Love your work! A highlight of my weekends.
Man I love all your radiation incidents / missing sources videos.
Excellent video as always John!
Thank you
MY CITY MY CITY MY CITY YAAAAAAAY- /dies of radiation poisoning/
Fun fact: There’s an abandoned hotel construction here not far from where I live. There’s no clear reason as to why that happened, but one of the rumors includes metal used for construction being contaminated with Cobalt-60.
I'm Australian and we were all pretty fascinated/appalled by the loss of the source here. I hope you will eventually do a video on it if you can work out what happened.
I have no idea how it could have been lost. My mother recently had to swallow a radioactive iodine pill for thyroid cancer and that was delivered inside three nesting cases with two attendants. And this only a pill with quite different radiation. We don't have nuclear power plants here (one medical reactor) so it's all very serious here... It's bananas that a radioactive security specialty company just had the pellet fall out of a truck. If you can make sense of it I'd love to see a video about it. ☺️ I really enjoy your videos.
My brother once applied for a job as a service technician for maintaining linear accelerators at a hospital specialising in cancer treatment. The man there told him how linear accelerators due to their increased technical capabilities were putting isotopes (at least the kind you don't swallow) out of favor due to the stringent safety measures involved with delivering a new source.
The hospital in question was inside a neighbourhood, and required an army-style of several safety cordons for delivery, with residents being ordered to stay inside, the complete evacuation of the wards that the source would pass through on it's way to the actual installation point, and weeks of planning ahead of the transport itself.
I can imagine people being fascinated and appalled at the same time, I honestly also don't understand how they could've lost it. Especially the thing that the newspaper mentioned here that it escaped the containment container in which it was relatively harmless...and also, that the containment container would've made it far larger than the pellet alone was now...
@@Dutch3DMaster I've done a little research into how it was lost since I posted that comment, and like other lost sources, it appears part of the problem was a lack of training for the staff. They didn't realise how dangerous it could be. The part that the source was housed in was apparently just left loose inside a truck, and then they drove a vast distance (1400km/870m) to the nearest city with it rattling away. It's unclear but perhaps the part rattled itself apart, and then it just.... fell out onto the highway. Unbelievable. The part was tiny too, 6x7mm. I wonder what has happened to those staff and their bosses.... 😂 But the company lost their contract!
New to your channel, ABSOLUTELY love your content! Subscribed & now binge watching
As always thanks for the content that is always top notch! Keep it up mate 🍻
Edit: I have learned from TH-cam, if I ever find myself owning a scrap yard, rule one will be. Always carry a Geiger counter!!!
Thank you!
I wouldn't suggest it. It's nightmare fuel, so many things are radioactive, you'll freak yourself out.
@@Night60700 I know, it was a "TH-cam smart." jest.
@@Night60700 wouldn't own a scrap yard to beginning with, I'd be the guy there because he's cleaning a neighborhood yard and brings sh*t home to make into "something" that really just makes his wife pissed lol 👌
@@joeyr7294 Metal absorbs and holds onto radiation. My bed tests above background. I've learned to live with it, but I'll never look at a basement or a concrete wall the same way ever again.
Your content is consistently exceptionally good--and this episode is one of your best ever. Cheers and thank you, John 🙂
T'was a super juicy episode. Thanks for the telling of it.
I loved the animation of the truck turning right into the forbidden area as it unspaghettified around the corner ^.^
And the f ucke d made me chuckle.
All round great video, John. :D
I don't always dismantle radiological equipment, but when I do, I make sure to drill holes in the source.
Wohooo!
Cobalt-60 Juarez incident!
Two radiation incidents from my country:3
...
You gotta check the gas explosions of Guadalajara City and the Pemex explosions of San Juanico too, the last one was outside Mexico City's capital
Thanks for the suggestion
I’m getting muddled up between greys, REM and terrabecquels. 🤔 Great video though, you’re my favourite video source at the moment!
Finally, a radiation incident video!
I've heard so many accounts of this incident but never in this detail, great video!
I wonder if we'll ever find the 10% of material that was never recovered.
I love your channel bro. You're doing one hell of a job! Andi it's greatly appreciated!
Thank you 👍🏼👍🏼
Cobalt 60 and scrapyards go together like Cheese and Crackers.
Tasty
What a mess!
Excellent explanation of all the details of this situation. Great work!
It's wild to me that the Cobolt-60 in a single teletherapy unit could be diluted into tons of steel and still be concentrated enough to be dangerous.
I do wonder if we have more radiation detectors now. I've heard about radiotherapy patients setting off detectors driving in and out of certain large cities.
Radiation incidents are my favorite on this channel
My friend I love your videos they are amazing it's tragic that some companies do not really care about human resources in health it is a real shame
Thank you
"Some companies." Hahaha. Only some. That's funny. Oh, and "companies" do not feel. The humans who run them don't either, since they are all sociopaths. So, yeah, no feels anywhere to be found.
Great video! I learned about this example in one of my master’s courses. I’m sure if this video was around during that semester this would have been apart of it.
I’m from El Paso! Thanks for the history lesson!
You bet!
Yo 656 reporting, thanks for talking about this, only people from Juárez and some foreign states here in México know about this. There is also many stories about famous people coming here to have a good time, like Al Capone, Marilyn Monroe, Jim Morrison and some politicians. Blessings from Juárez bro
Don’t think I’ve noticed the radiation detectors when I passed through the labs out there on NM highway 4 but that makes sense as to why there’s radiation detectors at scrap yards that coincidentally ended up flagging us for having some hot scrap metal from a site we tore down near Abilene 🙊 I wonder if maybe some of those pieces ended up having the same origin 🫠
i live in Cd Juarez and i go like 3 times to the Yonque Fenix for parts for my university proyects, this story is a leyend tale in our comunity.
Anyone knows what happened to the company from Fort Worth, Texas who exported the teletheraphy machine? They were also responsible for this radiation incident. I love your videos about orphan sources!
John narrating radiological incidents is my favourite 🖤
The horrifying thing is that this happens all of the time without anybody knowing the difference. So, if your new patio furniture glows in the dark call the authorities.
Just buy a radiation detector.
DON'T buy a geiger counter. It's pure nightmare fuel. You'll never look at a basement the same way.
The song your playing in the preface to the video is one of my favorites. It's such a jam.
Is it possible to do a video on the comparisons and differences of the different radiological measurements? Curies, sieverts, becquerel, röntgens.
You left out grays! I can't believe you left out grays!
@@krashd oops, thanks for the assist!
Great video. What a fascinating story! I certainly hope the rebar in my building is not keeping me warm at night.
By now you would expect steel mills to have radiation monitoring at the scrap entry gates, and maybe even at the furnace pour channels.
Anybody knows if this is an industry "best practice"?
This was 39 years ago.
I can only tell you that German scrapyards mostly have radiation detection at the entrance.
However there were several smal scandals with contaminated steel in the last 10 years.
One large German company had radiactive switches because the casing was made out of contaminated steel
In Mexico.
even the bigger scrapyards over here do have radiation monitoring at the entrance. Set them off and you're in big trouble
7:44 The sentient flags who are aware of this predicament really capture the alarm of the moment here.
Loved the sass in this one.
If anything, if one of us ever succumbs to radiation sickness: 1, we'll have you to thank for knowing it. 2, we'll be proud and terrified to be featured in a Plainly Difficult production.
You just gave me a good laugh...Thank you!
What a superb series of documentaries, should be on the BBC. Excellent!
Would you ever do a video on the Norfolk southern derailment?
Challenge is, it'll take a long time to know the true impacts, as cancer generally takes awhile to grow.
Ooooh, I second this request, Rail comes right after Radiation on my list of favourite catastrophies.....
@@tabeechey -- The newspapers have so overblown the risk of cancer and other issues from PVC that it's practically criminal. The cancer risk increase is only through ingestion, no one has eaten the stuff from the rail disaster, and even if they did it''s a far lower cancer risk than many things we used every single day. The smoke from the flames was the real risk because of the volatile byproducts created, not PVC itself, and that risk is well past and gone. Odds are very good the water you drink every day came out of a PVC pipe.
@HadToChangeMyName_TH-camSucks I agree that news coverage has been dramatic (it usually tends to be, drama sells!). I am more concerned about ingestion through water than anything else at this point, and more so for people who use well water. So much has to do with dose and duration of exposure, though, and the good news is nobody is going to be eager to eat local fish.
I find it rather odd that we are up in arms about this specific instance when contamination of food, water, and air is a pretty pervasive issue in the modern era. Rail crashes are just one avenue of exposure, and I'd argue we should be far more enraged by cases like Flint, where government entities failed in oversight and management and far more people were impacted in direct and clear ways.
Until we see something like a liver cancer cluster that is atypical in East Palestine, it will be difficult to fully distinguish many diseases as directly related to the derailment. We should care, but we should be generally concerned about all forms of exposure and demand improved safety and communication systems throughout various industries.
I've not forgotten this accident, our school district's science teachers, went around checking, tables and chairs with Geiger counters, because somehow they thought the new desks and chairs bought were made from contaminated material. Then there was the incident with the gold wedding bands sold by either J. C Penny's, Montgomery Wards or Sears and Roebuck, that somehow radiation for cancer treatment gold pellets wound up in the ingot /jewlery manufacturing realm...
This story reminds me of a story I heard from an Idaho Falls acquaintance, a manager at the National Lab had a Geiger counters on the seat next to him as he was driving home. He noticed every once in a while it would go off. It took him a while, but apparently they figured out that a reactor housing had a crack and was radiating, like a flashlight held up to a keyhole.
Don't know how something like that could go unnoticed, or that a beam of radiation could be detected miles away....
I'm fairly certain my neighbor has a radioactive clock. I can detect it from across the street as I walk by.
A good case for having truck stops for weighing at the entrance and exit as well as before large population centers have radiation monitoring/detection equipment
As well as at every boarder crossing in the US/Canada/Mexico or basically all of north and central America.... Well and Europe...and Asia... Basically everywhere... Just adding 4 per interstate highway (near a states enterance, exit, and another 2 random ones) is not a bad idea for the cost
Or just adding them to any international crossing and truck weigh station... It doesn't cost much in comparison to the problems it can solve, and since trucks have to stop at open weight stations, and since it's pretty passive to do (e.g. just have it by the scale) it wouldn't be hard to implement
Good idea
It would actually be a interesting game if each viewer who owns a Geiger counter would try to find the most radioactive thing within a radius of 5/10 kilometers around their homes
Ooof, I'll file this in horror, because you can now imagine all the missing sources that are still out there, could still end up in industrial forging or recycling plants, coming then back to us... I kinda want a radiation detector now. :P
This is my absolute favorite channel on TH-cam. Psst, the weather in London UK seems to be always doing the same thing at the same time that the weather in Wenatchee Washington is doing. Psst, my comment is number 420.
The "wrong turn" is very suspect. I wonder if he knew what he had, and wanted to sell it? Or else to make contact with someone in the facility? It's just WAY too improbable to be a mistake.
According to some other comments routing through that area isn't great as they have had navigation systems try to get them to drive straight through the secured area of Los Alamos so it's definitely possible that it's just poorly signed and way to easy to make a single bad turn and end up exactly where you don't want to be
@@ashrowan2143 sounds like something google maps would do lol
seems like a pretty good example to why importing radiation equipment needs to be registered oh and also probably that ironworks should check for radiation