For a month now, instead of its usual smell of the evergreen forest, the air in Stepanavan has reeked of mazut. The smell emanates from the grounds of the Plasma factory, where over 1,000 wooden poles saturated with mazut (fuel oil) and other chemicals were delivered a month ago. People who live nearby say they are suffering headaches and nausea that they are sure are caused by toxic fumes. But the town's anti-disease department denies these allegations.

The house of 70-year old Ohanik Gharagyozyan and his family is right next to the factory wall. The factory yard is not visible from their side of the wall, so at first the Gharagyozyans didn't realize where the smell was coming from. A day later their neighbors found them lying unconscious and called an ambulance. "I thought my blood pressure was going up. I wanted to call the neighbors, but didn't want to bother them, " Ohanik Gharagyozyan's wife told us.

Their neighbor Misak Melikhjanyan's says his son's family left for Yerevan to escape the toxic fumes. And his bees have died. "Out of three hives, only one is left," Melik said, showing us the empty honeycombs. "And this is happening during the time when bees are most active."

"We are told that the smell is not hazardous to your health. In that case why did the bees die?" asked Raisa Barsehyan, adding that the smell is especially worrisome during the morning hours and in sunny weather.

Neighbors complained to the owner of the factory, Jirayr Hovhannisyan. But he says that the poles aren't his - they belong to Armentel, which intends to install telephone lines in Stepanavan. He just rents the factory yard to Armentel for storage.

For a month now, the residents of this neighborhood have been contacting local and regional authorities in hopes of solving this problem. But the situation is becoming worse and worse.

Now Armentel has begun installing the telephone poles in the town streets. They are simply inserted into the ground, without any concrete foundations.

Since the earthquake, there are almost no apartments buildings left in Stepanavan. Unemployment is high, and the only source of survival is the crops they grow in the lots near their houses. But these poles have been placed right next to these lots, and the chemicals they are saturated with can easily contaminate the soil.

"Of course, most people complain, but many don't realize that this is poison," said Larisa Tonoyan, a mother of three, who is worried about the well being of her children. "The children have nothing else to do; they play from morning to evening under near these poles."

The local authorities insist that everything is being done in accordance with the law. The company that is installing the poles won the Armentel contract in a tender.

Environmental organizations in the marz, along with Stepanavan's Lore Eco-Club, alerted Yerevan in writing about the situation. But the Ministry of Nature Protection sent their memo to back to Lori's regional authorities. Sending messages back and forth has done little to improve the situation-Stepanavan continues to breathe in toxic fumes.