Teckomatorp

Teckomatorp is a locality situated in Svalöv Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 1,644 inhabitants in 2005.^[1] It has a train station (local pågatåg trains) on the Malmö - Teckomatorp - Helsingborg railway line.

In 2007, the old station building in Teckomatorp was transformed to host the Tapper-Popermajer Art Gallery and the café / specialty shop TraktensMat & Café (www.traktensmat.se). Teckomatorp is located at the very center of the Swedish-Danish Øresund region and is easily accessible by car or by local trains.

The village of Teckomatorp and its surroundings will be widely renowned for a vital and exciting cultural life, and as a place that attracts visitors from far-away because of its displays of unique sculptures and other public art objects. From its bad history, Teckomatorp will rise, and a positive culture zone is born in a strategic location close to the major cities of the region. The Kulturzon is a project that wants to change people's attitudes. The project wants to "culture" a positive image of Teckomatorp - www.kulturzon.se

The BT Kemi scandal

Teckomatorp is the site of one of the largest toxic spills in Sweden. The company BT Kemi produced pesticides. During the 1970s, the inhabitants of Teckomatorp started complaining of an acrid odour from the plant that made people ill. It was also said that BT Kemi had buried barrels ot toxic waste in the ground. However, the authorities did nothing for several years, despite efforts of campaigners such as Monica Nilsson, a resident of Teckomatorp, who conducted a signature campaign among the citizens^[2]. The government took steps to investigate the issue only after a former employee of BT Kemi told a newspaper that the company was entering forged values within allowed limits into its emission journals. When the authorities finally started to dig, several hundreds of barrels with toxic contents were found.

In 1979 the plant was demolished, and in 1980 the southern area around the plant itself was cleaned. Later it was discovered that the northern area of the town was also polluted, and that the southern area remained polluted despite cleanup efforts.^[3] In 2009 a project to restore nature was completed: tons of contaminated topsoil were removed, and a natural park has been established on the site of poisoned area.

References

Further reading

• Environmental reclaiming Teckomatorp site. Project update 22 September 2006. Visit from NORDROCKS 2006 Malmö. Lars Bevmo, Project manager, Municipality of Svalöv, Sweden [1]

• The Poison plant that was blown up. The BT Kemi-scandal and establishing of the conception environmental crime. (Giftfabriken som sprängdes. BT Kemi-skandalen och miljöbrottsbegreppets etablering) Report 2002:12, Brottsförebyggande rådet, Information och förlag, Stockholm. In Swedish, with English summary in the end. [2]