‘Terrified’ families seek justice in Italy ‘forever chemicals’ trial

In this file photo, Eva Stebel, a water researcher, pours a water sample into a smaller glass container for experimentation as part of drinking water and PFAS research at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Center For Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response, Feb. 16, 2023, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, File) (Joshua A. Bickel/AP)

VICENZA, Italy -- Managers of a chemical plant accused of knowingly contaminating the water of hundreds of thousands of people are on trial in Italy, in one of Europe’s biggest environmental disaster lawsuits.

The now-shuttered Miteni factory near the northeastern city of Vicenza is alleged to have polluted one of Europe’s largest groundwater basins with PFAS, dubbed “forever chemicals” because they never break down.

PFAS have been used since the late 1940s to mass produce the nonstick, waterproof and stain-resistant treatments that coat everything from frying pans to umbrellas, carpets and dental floss.

But chronic exposure to even low levels of the chemicals has been linked to liver damage, high cholesterol, reduced immune responses, low birthweights and several kinds of cancer.

Over 200 civil plaintiffs have joined the Italian trial, which began in 2021 and is expected to reach a verdict in May or June.

Matteo Ceruti, a lawyer representing some of the affected families, told AFP it was “one of the biggest environmental disasters in history... (with) an affected population of up to 350,000 people”.

The case was driven in part by campaigning by local mothers, who united after discovering their families had the chemicals in their blood.

“With great bitterness we found out that they got in via the taps in our house, from the foods in our gardens, from the barnyard animals that we raised to give healthy food to our children,” Giovanna Dal Lago, a mother of five, told AFP.

“It was a blow to the heart,” said Dal Lago, one of the plaintiffs in the trial.

“How could a mother think that she had poisoned her children without knowing, without having a choice?”

‘No immediate risk’

The prosecution alleges that the Miteni plant in Trissino, which produced PFAS from 1968 and was run by three companies until its closure due to bankruptcy in 2018, leaked chemical-laced wastewater into a waterway

That then fed into other waterways, polluting a vast area between Vicenza, Verona and Padova.

Fifteen managers from Mitsubishi, International Chemical Investors (ICIG) and Miteni are charged with contaminating nearly 200 square kilometres (77 square miles) of drinking water, as well as soil.

If found guilty of knowingly poisoning the tap water, they could serve 15 years in prison. The plaintiffs are also seeking compensation.

Lawyers for the managers have either refused to comment or failed to reply to AFP, but it is believed the defence teams will point to a lack of specific regulations at the time.

The contamination was discovered in 2013 after Italy’s environment ministry ordered tests of the Po River following a 2006 European project assessing exposure to such chemicals in rivers.

Of all the rivers studied, the Po had the highest concentrations of one specific PFAS called PFOA, a known carcinogen. Further investigation identified Miteni as the source.

At the time, there were no Italian or EU thresholds for PFAS content in drinking water, according to a regional report by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Veneto region says it was initially advised by Italian’s national health institute (ISS) and the government that there was no “immediate risk to the population”, but was told to treat the water, and it installed filters.

‘Excess mortality’

Local doctor Vincenzo Cordiano, a cancer and blood expert, in the meantime started noticing higher than average cancer rates among patients in a certain area.

Cordiano, regional head of the International Society of Doctors for the Environment (ISDE), was familiar with a high-profile PFAS pollution case in the United States.

So alarm bells rang when he began “seeing an increased frequency in... diseases which could involve these molecules” in the contaminated area in Italy, he told AFP.

In data from the region he also noticed a higher number of deaths, cases of “excess mortality that could be explained by PFAS”.

The discovery sparked a protest movement that would come to include the “Mums Against PFAS” (Mamme No PFAS), among them Dal Lago.

She does not trust the filters installed to capture all the chemicals.

“We are still terrified of home tap water,” she said.

Contaminated food?

Greenpeace Italia, also a civil plaintiff, said the failure to clean up the Miteni site meant it “continues to pollute” the area, and a lack of regular testing of food grown locally or livestock raised in the area could mask a much wider contamination.

The environmental group and Mamme No PFAS have been urging regional authorities to test and make public the results, but suspect it is wary of damaging the agricultural industry and exports, from prosecco sparkling wine to cheese.

“We do not have a clear picture of the contamination of food products that come from these territories,” Greenpeace’s pollution expert Giuseppe Ungherese told AFP.

“The lack of controls could potentially expose thousands of citizens, not just Italians but also Europeans,” to unwittingly consuming forever chemicals, he said.

Ella IDE, AFP