Anne Albers is the three-time Dutch longboard surf champion, but she can’t enjoy her “little surfing paradise” in Wijk aan Zee, a seaside village of about 2,000 people. The town has the best waves in the Netherlands, but it’s also been struggling with serious health and environmental problems connected to Tata Steel, Europe’s second-biggest steel plant.
Locals have voiced concerns about the factory’s pollution for decades. However, it was only in September that the Dutch national public health agency first established a direct link between the plant and elevated lung cancer rates and reduced life expectancy in the surrounding area.
