Radiation and misfortune: the reason why three men were involved in a radioactive accident in El Salvador
This article was originally published on October 28th of 2019 by Capslock Magazine, to reach out to Salvadorans and Latinxs around the world that are eager to read new narratives around the stories of the country their parents or grandparents left behind.
Did you know El Salvador had a nuclear radiation accident in 1989, three years after Chernobyl had its disastrous event in 1986? Yes! We are talking about real radiation, the one that has affected thousands of lives in Europe, has changed environments forever and has had a worldwide media frenzy (Blakemore, 2019). A craze that keeps on living with series like HBO’s 2019 Chernobyl.
Chernobyl is a five-part miniseries that dramatizes the nuclear disaster and the cleanup aftermath in Pripyat, Ukraine’s Soviet Union. It stars actors like Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, and Emily Watson (Petzki, 2017). The series amazes with great directing, acting, visuals, editing, and for the loud criticism of the Soviet government’s role, who wanted to keep the issue top secret. The thing about radiation is that it’s invisible; you can’t feel it nor touch it, though some people say it has a metallic taste to it. The show is entertaining because of the way it portrays the lack of information about radiation's effects on our health. Imagine being exposed to radiation and not even knowing how your life could be at risk.
I was scrolling through my Facebook News Feed, looking at posts about Chernobyl when I found a post about El Salvador’s nuclear accident. At first, I thought it was a hoax, but as I doubled-check some sources, I came across an official report written by Salvadoran physicist Napoleon Melara. Melara worked for the Salvadoran Social Security Institute (ISSS) and reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA is the world’s center for cooperation in the nuclear field, which seeks to promote the safe, secure, and peaceful use of nuclear technologies. Indeed, it happened in El Salvador. Three people were exposed to radiation. One of them died a few months later, another died years later, and the last one is still alive!
So what exactly happened? It was February 5th of 1989, 2 am local time, when a cobalt-60 industrial irradiation facility in Soyapango, San Salvador, had a major malfunction (Melara, 1997). Delmed was a pharmaceutical company that manufactured and sterilized intravenous solutions, as well as blood and urine collection bags (Arteaga, 2019). According to reports (Melara, 1997; Arteaga, 2019; Artega, 2019), the accident occurred under three types of conditions. First, the degradation of the installation itself, meaning some pistons had worn out and caused the radioactive material to be exposed. Second, because of the turbulent social situation due to the civil war, Canadian manufacturers had not been able to give technical assistance to the equipment because of airport shutdowns, in addition to equipment failure caused by bombs in electrical poles. Finally, because of the non-existent legislation concerning the control of ionizing sources, workers didn’t have proper and formal training, nor did they know any response protocols.
Local newspaper La Prensa Gráfica has made a step-by-step infographic describing what happened precisely. You can check it out here. The accident itself is divided into two main events. The first event was when the three operators noticed something wrong with the installation and decided to enter the room where they were exposed. The second event was when the maintenance manager and the other three operators came to check the installation because they didn’t want to stop the sterilization processes. The manager decided to contact the manufacturer because they realized the machine was not working correctly. None of them used dosimeters to measure radiation. The manufacturer from Canada came nine days later to shut the radiation source down (Melara, 1997). Nine days later.
The accident changed the lives of the three men working for Delmed, who were exposed to radiation. It’s important to clarify that they were exposed, not contaminated (Arteaga, 2019). Contamination implies direct contact with the body; exposure doesn’t (REMM, 2019). Contamination can be internal or external (CDC, 2019). According to Melara, after the incident, the three operators were taken immediately to the local hospital, where Subject A started vomiting blood. They were diagnosed with food poisoning and discharged at 6 am the same day. Subject A’s real name was Francisco Santiago Roque Tobar; he was 25-years old (Arteaga, 2019). He came back to the hospital nine days later with gastrointestinal syndrome, vomiting, diarrhea, pain, fever, oral lesions. These wounds hindered the patient’s feeding, severity in the burning of the lower limbs, and, in general terms, a marked deterioration.
Subject B came back nine days later as well, with some symptoms. Subject C came back 23 days after hearing about the severe symptoms his peers had faced.
The three of them were taken to Mexico for proper treatment, 24 days after the initial exposure took place. Subject A died on August 19th, 197 days after the incident, because of pneumonia and complications due to the secondary effects of radiation. Subject B’s right leg was amputated because of severe burns. He died a few years later in a car accident. Subject C, the only survivor of the three, only presented wounds on one foot, making it difficult for him to walk. The other four workers from the second event were tested for radioactivity. Their results came back positive. Each of them had small amounts of radioactivity traces but not as lethal as the other three.
El Salvador changed after this accident. Socially speaking, the most significant losses were the lives of these three Salvadorans. However, this accident became precedent for the creation of the first regulatory institution called the Directorate of Radiological Protection of the Ministry of Health in 1998, monitored by the IAEA. They formulated the Special regulation of radiation protection and safety in 2002. It was reformed to be under global technologies and laws in October of 2018 (Arteaga, 2019). The ISSS has also reinforced its protocols for action, response, and maintenance of equipment such as X-rays. Economically speaking, the accident had an estimated cost of $1,400,000, according to official reports (Melara, 1997). Those who assumed the losses were mainly the families of those affected. Delmed had to cut 100 operators, 30% of the workforce, due to low sales. This cut had an impact on their families; approximately 500 people (Melara, 1997).
Salvadoran physicist Napoleon Melara states that the radiological accident could have been avoided if we had been prepared. He also clarifies that a disaster, as such, can’t happen again in El Salvador because more regulations monitor such activity. Besides, there are no longer industrial processes that occupy radioactive material, just medical (Arteaga, 2019).
While I was researching information on this topic, I found vital details on radiation sources and how to act if you suspect you are exposed to dangerous material. Did you know Latin America has a history of nuclear accidents? Like Argentina in 1983, Brazil and México in 1987, the world has faced many threats with atomic energy, some we might not even be aware of. You can read more about it in the Nuclear Safety Review 2018.
While people often debate the pros and cons of nuclear energy, series like Chernobyl bring attention to these historical incidents that have had a significant impact on our societies. To talk about nuclear power is critical to speak about important topics such as public health, law enforcement, media coverage, administration transparency, environmental contamination, and so on. It’s never too late to learn about what happened in Chernobyl or Soyapango. There are always lives at risk. Because human mistakes will always exist, we have to be more than prepared so that in the future, we don’t make the same mistakes of the past. We owe it to the generations to come.
