Radioactivity teaching: Environmental consequences of the radiological accident in Goiania (Brazil)

Ionizing radiation and its effects on human beings, radiation protection, a nd radiological accident prevention are topics usually not included in the physics courses at the Brazilian universities. As a consequence, high schoo l teachers are not able to enlighten their students when radiological or nu clear accidents occur. This paper presents a teaching program on ionizing r adiation physics, to be applied to undergraduate physics students and to ph ysics high school teachers. It is based on the environmental consequences o f the 1987 radiological accident in Goiania. This program was applied to tw o undergraduate physics students, in 1999, at the Universidade Federal Flum inense, Brazil. Results of the gamma ray spectrometry measurements of sampl es collected in Goiania by the students are presented. (C) 2001 American As sociation of Physics Teachers.