STRAZSKE, SLOVAKIA - OCTOBER 5th: Marian Pouchan, rescue brigade commander of the Humennné Fire Brigade is giving an impromptu press conference to journalists after months of preparations of the Crisis Management Department of the Slovak Ministry of Interior, the Slovak Technical University (STU) in Bratislava, the Slovak Ministry of Environment, and other partners, the Humenné Fire Brigade's rescue team has started excavating the contaminated forest area behind the controversial Chemko Strazske chemical plant in Strazske, Slovakia on the 5th of October 2022. The Chemko plant produced various chemicals between 1959 and 1984. The factory's harmful legacy threatens the health of 250,000 people, and the pollution has spread as far as the Zemplínska Šírava reservoir during the previous decades. The production volume of Chemko Strážske during the years of socialism was 21 thousand tonnes of polychlorinated biphenyls, as known as PCBs. It is estimated that a large part of this was released into the environment through Chemko's drains, via the Laborc River, all the way to nearby Lake Zemplínska Šírava, which has made Eastern Slovakia famous in professional circles for being ahead of the most polluted places in the world, including the Faer Islands, Greenland, Alabama in the USA and Canada, in terms of PCB concentrations and the number of people at risk.