Formula di un disastro invisibile (Formula for an invisible disaster) explains one of the largest cases of industrial contamination in Europe: from the MITENI chemical plant, located in Trissino (near Vicenza, Italy), the toxic waste leaked into the groundwater, thus entering the aqueducts serving about twenty municipalities in the provinces of Vicenza, Verona, and Padua. The lasting pollution affected a territory of 300,000 inhabitants, extending over 100 square kilometers and contaminating Europe's second-largest aquifer.
One of the major issues of this contamination is due to the synthetic chemicals PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), that accumulate everywhere due to their environmental persistence and resistance to degradation, concentrating mainly in water (groundwater, rivers, drinking water), soil, living organisms (bioaccumulation along the food chain) and in the human body, particularly in the blood, liver and kidneys.

The publication helps to unravel this case of water contamination: Federico Bevilacqua, a biologist, and citizen of one of the areas most affected, for several years documented the evolution of the civil struggle summarized in the banner of the ‘No Pfas Movement’. A story that has become a symbol in Italy of militancy, defense of health, and the right to water as a public good.
The book includes essays and contributions that help the reader to retrace the story. All this comes with a vast iconographic apparatus enriched by maps, infographics, illustrations, and aerial photogrammetry to contextualize the territory and trace the geography of the watercourses and the hydrographic system.

The trial against the owners and managers of Miteni started in 2021 and it is considered the most important environmental trial in Italy and one of the largest environmental trials currently in Europe. The first instance sentence[20] in 2025 lead to 11 convictions and 4 acquittals, with sentences ranging from 2 years and 8 months to 17 and a half years, for a total of 141 years in prison. In addition, the court awarded compensation for damages to over 300 civil parties, including private individuals and public bodies, such as the Italian Ministry of the Environment, the Veneto Region, the province of Vicenza, etc. The individual civil parties obtained compensation ranging from 15,000 to 20,000 euros. The sentences imposed by the court the requests by the prosecution and for the first time in Europe and in Italy the environmental crime, the intent for an unnamed disaster and poisoning of waters, was judicially recognized, stating in a clear and unequivocal way the criminal responsibility of those who polluted is recognized: "who pollutes, pays".
This judgement is not yet final.