Submarine asbestos use put sailors at risk: report

Crew members of the submarine Zeeleeuw was exposed to carcinogenic asbestos for years. This reported Brandpunt Reporter today based on their own research. The television program cites internal documents of Defense. It was already known that asbestos was released on the Zeeleeuw in 2013 during maintenance work. Measures were then taken. But according to the television program, a risk of contamination existed for much longer. This is clear from a report of an asbestos removal company that Brandpunt Reporter has in its possession. The "incompetent removal" of a heating element created a contamination in the air handling system in the past, the television program reports. Last year the Ministry of Defense also had to deal with an affair in which (former) employees had come into contact with carcinogenic chromium-6 paint. In December 1,250 (former) employees reported with health problems related to this case.