Children tearing asbestos sheets from a building – completely without protective equipment. That’s what met the Danish equivalent of the Work Environment Agency during an inspection visit to a property in Sønderborg Municipality at the end of September.
During the inspection, it was discovered that a company was using minors to demolish an Eternite roof, which is asbestos cement sheets.
Young boys have been working at night
Danish TV 2 reports that the company has used young, vulnerable, boys to perform work. According to the mayor of Odsherred municipality, the young people aged 12 to 16 have been paid with cash and electronics. They have also performed work at night.
– It is highly reprehensible and actually borders on the exploitation of children and young people, and I strongly distance myself from that, says the mayor Karina Vincentz to the television channel.
The company has been reported to the police and at least three children have worked with the health-damaging material asbestos – but there may be more.
The minister is shocked
As in Sweden, asbestos is now banned in building materials and strict rules apply to how old buildings, which contain the extremely harmful and carcinogenic substance, must be handled.
– I am completely shocked that people work with a life-threatening material like asbestos so carelessly and completely without protection. And that you also have such young people, says Labor Market Minister Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen.
The company has previously denied in an interview with TV 2 that children have worked for the company.