Story highlights Their housing tested positive for carcinogens

The Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment

Washington (CNN) Lawyers who work at a camp at Guantanamo Bay filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that the Pentagon failed to properly investigate health hazards at facilities there that contain carcinogens.

The lawyers, who work at the facilities for several weeks in a year, say the US Navy failed to follow up on reports of high cancer cases among young and otherwise healthy people who work at Camp Justice, the complex where they work on detainees' cases.

The lawsuit comes after a former military commissions attorney filed a complaint with the Department of Defense inspector general in July 2015 to look into whether conditions at the camp contributed to several cancer cases among personnel, including a former Camp Justice attorney who died of cancer on July 19, 2015, at the age of 44.

The lawsuit alleged that the US Navy conducted a "deeply flawed investigation" of the environmental hazards at the camp.

"Although this investigation found and documented the presence of hazardous conditions and cancer-causing chemicals, ranging from formaldehyde to heavy metals and mold, the investigation is inadequate to determine how great a risk they pose to human health, much less to determine appropriate remedial measures," the documents said.

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