In 1964/65, the chemical company Bönnelyche & Thuröe AB, later called BT Kemi, moved from its location in the city of Malmö to the small community of Teckomatorp in Skåne. The company opened up their factory, where they produced a pesticide known as hormoslyr (same chemical as Agent Orange). It did not take long until the people living in Teckomatorp started to feel the effects of the factory. Allergies and miscarriages are a few of the effects the pollution from the factory had on the people, and gardeners experienced that their plants died.

A long turbulent process, involving public meetings, lawsuits, and the failure of authorities to follow environmental and regulatory laws took place. People living in Teckomatorp, together with an EJO from Uppsala called Miljöcentrum tried to prove how the factory was polluting and dumping toxic waste illegally by burying barrels of chemical waste in the ground around the factory and dumping it at night outside the village.

The authorities refused to listen but instead believed the company whose executives among other things ordered false test results that would let the authorities believe there was nothing wrong with the waste from the production. It was not until 400 barrels of highly toxic waste was found in 1977 that the factory was shut down in 1978. The sanitation work after this environmental disaster is still ongoing. (1-7) Its difficult to assess the number of people affected by this illegal activity; inhabitants in Teckomatorp at the time were 1,100.

The total number of excavated barrells of toxic waste from the factory was 800. The barrells contained, among other things, the highly toxic chemical called dinoseb. During the sanitation work that took place in 2007-2009, 80,000 tonnes of toxic soil was removed and as of today, a major part of the area still needs to be sanitized.