Thule affair
In 1968, an American B-52 bomber crashed at the Thule air base in Greenland. There were nuclear bombs on the aircraft, which gave rise to radioactive contamination of the workers at the military base. As Denmark and Greenland officially had no nuclear weapons, the information was withheld from the employees.
There was also concern that Greenland and Denmark should not become nuclear targets of the then Soviet Union. The Thule workers were exposed to nuclear radiation, and many have died of cancer.
They approached the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament in order to put pressure on the Danish Government to accept the requirements of the Euratom Treaty on annual health checks. The European Parliament criticised Denmark in a letter sent on 14 December 2004. The affair was concluded with the Wallis report criticising the Danish government.
