An Italian court has handed down jail terms of up to 17 years to executives at a chemical plant for contaminating drinking water with toxic PFAS substances, also known as “forever chemicals”. The executives, including two from the now-defunct Italian firm Miteni, were found guilty of knowingly polluting water and soil across a 200-square-kilometer area in Veneto, affecting hundreds of thousands of people between the cities of Vicenza, Verona, and Padova.
The pollution was caused by the Miteni facility leaking chemical-laced waste into local waterways from 1968 until it closed in 2018. The court sentenced a total of 11 chemical plant executives to prison terms ranging from 2 years and 8 months to 17 years. Four other defendants were acquitted. The prosecutors had requested cumulative jail terms of 121 years, but the court’s sentence was even tougher, totaling more than 141 years.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of more than 10,000 human-made chemicals that repel heat, water, oil, and stains. The convicted individuals worked for companies including Japan’s Mitsubishi and Luxembourg-based ICIG. The trial, which began in 2021, involved hundreds of civil plaintiffs, including Greenpeace and local families.
