This article is also available in Italian / Questo articolo è disponibile anche in italiano
After four years of deliberation, 130 hearings, approximately 300 civil parties involved, and an impressive amount of technical documentation and testimonies, the first-instance criminal trial in the Miteni case, held at the Vicenza Court of Assizes, has finally reached its conclusion.
This incident has shaken the Veneto region and the entire country, becoming a symbol of the urgent need to decisively address pollution from PFAS, poly- and perfluoroalkyl compounds used in various industrial processes but known for their high environmental persistence and toxicity. At the heart of the proceedings is the activity of Miteni, a chemical company based in Trissino (Vicenza) and specialized in the production of intermediates for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, as well as perfluorinated derivatives like PFOA.
After six hours in the council chamber, the Vicenza Court of Assizes issued its verdict on June 26th. Eleven of the fifteen defendants, all former company executives, were sentenced to terms ranging from 2 years and 8 months to 17 years and 6 months, for an overall total of 141 years of imprisonment. The remaining four were acquitted. The Court also ordered a substantial compensation of 58 million euros in favour of the Ministry of the Environment.
The PFAS pollution from the Trissino plant has affected an area inhabited by over 300,000 people, spanning more than 100 square kilometres and contaminating the second largest aquifer in Europe. This contamination not only compromised drinking water and the natural environment but also had profound health and social implications. During the proceedings, the prosecutors sought convictions for 9 of the 15 defendants, totalling 121 years and six months of imprisonment.
A long battle for health and the environment
Fifteen people, including managers and executives from Mitsubishi Corporation and the investment fund International Chemical Investors Group (ICIG), were charged in the Miteni trial. Mitsubishi held control of Miteni from 1998 - after managing it in collaboration with Enimont - to 2009, when it sold the company to ICIG Italia 3 Holding. The plant has been in operation since 1965, when it was known as RiMar (“Ricerche Marzotto”), until its bankruptcy in 2018.
In 2024, the Veneto Regional Administrative Court had already confirmed Mitsubishi Corporation’s liability for the PFAS contamination linked to the Miteni plant in Trissino, rejecting the Japanese multinational’s appeal and forcing it to contribute to environmental remediation. In May 2025, for the first time in Italy, the Court of Vicenza recognized the link between PFAS exposure and the death of a worker: Pasqualino Zenere, a former Miteni employee.
It should be emphasized that a strong network of committees, civic movements, and environmental and health associations has been supporting the fight for truth and the protection of public health in Veneto over the years. “Mamme No PFAS”, Greenpeace, Medicina Democratica, ISDE - Doctors for the Environment, and the Zero PFAS Italy Network have either filed civil lawsuits or played an active role in social mobilisation, promoting events, scientific conferences, legal actions, and awareness-raising activities.
An “historic ruling”
NO PFAS activist Alberto Peruffo celebrated on Facebook: “This is an historic ruling. Exemplary. It shows that large corporations, especially multinationals, are potentially criminal and can be stopped. Now we must turn our attention to those who allowed this to happen”.
Stefano Ciafani, national president of Legambiente, speaks of a “historic verdict and a great victory for the people affected by pollution. After years of complaints, disputes, and battles, including those led by Legambiente and its groups, the polluters are finally paying for unscrupulously poisoning the Veneto region, damaging not only the environment but also the health of its citizens. A significant effort, beginning with the first complaint in 2014 by Circolo Perla Blu of Cologna Veneta and lawyer Enrico Varali, the regional coordinator of Legambiente Legal Action Center, who have fought both inside and outside the courtrooms to achieve eco-justice [...]. Now, the reclamation of the polluted site, which has caused and continues to cause one of the most extensive groundwater contaminations that Venetian citizens have been forced to deal with for decades, should be carried out as soon as possible.”
Cristina Guarda, a Green MEP elected from the Alleanza Verdi Sinistra (AVS) list and a former regional councillor in Veneto, also views this as a historic ruling that goes beyond the PM’s demands: “From today, our call for a universal ban on PFAS at the European level has gained more strength [...]. There is still some bitterness over the delay and the shortcomings in how the institutions have handled the contamination, the largest known case of PFAS pollution in the world. As a regional councillor, I have been fighting for PFAS-free tap water, epidemiological studies, information campaigns, support for women wanting to have children, food safety research, and crop protection techniques since 2015. The issue has not received proper attention; our requests have always been treated like those of the ‘classic environmentalists’ who complain. I would have liked politicians to be as committed as if it were their own water that was contaminated, but that hasn’t been the case. Now the battle continues in Europe for the complete removal of these substances from consumer goods, agricultural production, and industrial processes,” concludes the MEP.
One of the most serious contaminations in Europe
The case officially surfaced in 2013, when the Ministry of the Environment notified the Veneto region of the outcome of a study commissioned by CNR-IRSA. The investigation revealed the presence of PFAS in “worrying” concentrations in the drinking water of several municipalities in the Veneto region. Despite an initial assessment by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, on June 7, 2013, which did not identify an “immediate risk to the exposed population,” the region intervened by urging aqueduct managers to install activated carbon filters to reduce contamination.
Since then, a series of urgent measures were initiated to contain the phenomenon, including the closure of heavily contaminated wells, increased water intake from safer sources, the launch of local interconnection projects between water networks, and the development of targeted monitoring plans for the entire water supply system.
It is estimated that over 300,000 people have lived and continue to live in areas exposed to PFAS, with health consequences still to be fully assessed. Several studies, including those conducted as part of the trial, have shown correlations between prolonged exposure to these compounds and the onset of hormonal dysfunctions, infertility, cancer, and kidney and cardiovascular diseases.
A recent study published by Environmental Health estimated 3,800 additional deaths from PFAS-related cardiovascular diseases recorded over a 34-year period in the exposed population. The Miteni case is one of the most extensive PFAS contaminations worldwide, so much so that it has attracted the attention of international organisations and foreign media, such as the Forever Pollution Project.
Cover: Envato image