[1][2] The company was best known for the pollution of land and waters related to its production of dyes earning it the nickname of "the poison factory" which would see it brought before the Italian government.

[6] The factory would be retooled in 1908 to produce Sulfuric Acid, Oleum, and TNT, during which the earliest evidence of pollution from the company began to be noticed.

[4] The Cengio factory would be taken over by Italgas in 1925 and would later be grouped with the Rho and Cesano Maderno plants to establish the first ACNA, the Associated National Chemical Companies, which began producing dyes.

[8] In 1931, Italgas was forced to sell ACNA to IG Farben and Montecatini who kept the acronym but changed the name to Azienda Coloranti Nazionali e Affini and resumed production of explosives and toxic gases, which were used in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War and in Eritrea.

[9][10] It was discovered that the long-standing deterioration of the environment surrounding these factories was being caused by ACNA, improperly dumping chemical waste.