“Spolana should be made accountable for the damages caused by this accident. They have known for years about the risks connected with contamination on their site,” said Martin Hojsik, Greenpeace toxics campaigner for Greenpeace Central Europe.

Spolana a.s. Neratovice is one of the largest companies in the Czech chemical industry. It is owned by Unipetol which in turn is owned by the National Property Fund of the Czech Republic - the Czech state.

Neratovice is the town 25 kilometres (15 miles) north of Prague on the River Elbe where the company has its headquarters on a 262.5 hectare (649 acre) site.

Spolana produces polyvinylchloride (PVC) and other basic chemicals and pharmaceutical products.
According to Greenpeace, the two dioxin contaminated buildings were former

production facilities of the herbicide 2,4,5-T, more commonly known as Agent Orange.

An accident at the chlorine station in July 2000 had negative consequences,
"mainly in the media," said
Jaroslav Strop, Spolana's general director. After a technical failure, there was a leak of 188 kg of chlorine into the air.

The company halted its 2,4,5-T production on account of the severe health effects on workers in 1968. Extremely high dioxin concentrations were indicated within in the surroundings of the contaminated buildings.