27-06-2025
Italian court hands down prison sentences for PFAS pollution from chemical plant
An Italian court has sentenced former executives of a chemical manufacturer to prison terms of up to 17 and a half years for polluting groundwater.
The court in the northern city of Vicenza on Thursday handed down the sentences to 11 officials out of 15 defendants who were executives at the company. The remaining four were acquitted.
The 11 officials were found guilty for their roles in contaminating groundwater with PFAS from a chemical plant.
PFAS are a group of organic fluorine compounds, some of which are considered potentially harmful.
The 11 convicted officials' prison terms range from two years and eight months to 17 years and six months.
Three of the 11 are Japanese from Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation, which was a parent company of the chemical maker. Two of the three were reportedly sentenced to 16 years in prison and the other was given 11 years.
Local media say the chemical company was making products including PFAS chemicals from the 1960s until it went bankrupt in 2018, and that water from its plant polluted groundwater.
Mitsubishi Corporation says it will refrain from making comments on the ruling as they would be related to the ongoing legal proceedings. The trading house says it will continue to respond sincerely to debate in the judicial arena.
