Defense contractor KBR was ordered by a federal magistrate to pay $85 million to National Guard soldiers who were exposed to a cancer-causing agent while serving in Iraq, court documents show.

The suit, the first of its kind against a contractor by service members, was filed by 12 soldiers who were exposed to the anti-corrosion agent sodium dichromate, known to contain the carcinogen hexavalent chromium, while serving in Iraq in 2003.

The judge ordered on Friday that each of soldiers was to be awarded $850,000 in compensatory damages and $6.25 million in punitive damages.

The lawsuit claimed that KBR was negligent when it added sodium dichromate to water that was pumped underground in order to push oil to the surface. The carcinogen was found to be in many areas of the compound where the soldiers were living, including where they ate their meals.

KBR maintains that there was little likelihood that any of the soldiers were exposed to dangerous levels of sodium dichromate at the compound.

An attorney for KBR said the company plans to appeal the verdict.