🔗 Share this article Where Will a European Manufacturing Facility Which Polluted Water Supplies Go Next? Heading to India The dense tropical forest and rust-red hills of Lote, situated along India’s western shoreline, give way to a modest rise where a factory looms against the sky. This industrial unit is largely newly built, but its machinery is not: it comes from the former Miteni factory in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 following among the most severe environmental scandals in the nation’s modern record: after decades of producing Pfas forever chemicals, the company’s management was brought to trial for contaminating water resources in an region inhabited by 350,000 people. In June, its former executives were convicted at the Vicenza court of environmental damage and other charges and sentenced to jail, with appeals anticipated. What are PFAS, how toxic are they and how do you become exposed? And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its patents and processes – everything needed to manufacture Pfas – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone almost 4,000 miles away, sandwiched among local communities and wooded areas. And the plant has just started to resume PFAS production. An Environmental Burden Once known for its expertise in developing processes for specialty compounds, Miteni is now notorious for the harmful aftermath it bequeathed. In 2011, researchers found exceptionally elevated concentrations of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of residents had been exposed through potable water. The worst-affected were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its fluorinated chemical department, displayed one of the highest concentrations of PFAS ever recorded in human blood. “When the story came to light, I looked at a list of medical conditions associated with Pfas, and found out I had them all,” says Ermetti. Former Miteni worker Ilario Ermetti had elevated levels of PFAS in his blood. Elevated concentrations of PFAS in the blood are linked to higher chances of malignancies, cardiovascular diseases, organ impairment, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is presently recuperating from a recent medical procedure. Community Concerns Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mamme No Pfas, began mobilizing after learning her children’s blood indicated elevated amounts of forever chemicals. When she learned that Miteni’s proprietary information and equipment were being sent to India, she was shocked. “Being parents, as women, our concern has grown,” she said. “Since our kids are the children of all.” Business Shift After Miteni went bankrupt, its holdings were acquired in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a subsidiary of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the open sale. By the start of 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships heading to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to shareholders. Records of investor gatherings indicate that Laxmi’s executives downplayed environmental concerns, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “doing everything legally in compliance with European standards”. Goenka is a member on the board of Laxmi Organic Italy, a company founded in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was found guilty of ecological offenses and financial misreporting at the June trial and sentenced to six years and four months in jail. According to a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the company went bankrupt. Although Laxmi purchased Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the ecological review for the building of the plant in Lote shows that in March 2018 the firm was already planning to start producing fluorochemicals matching Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment. Strategic Expansion By 2021, Laxmi’s plan clearly outlined the goal to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and become a leader in the production of PFAS and fluorochemicals. Shipping records indicate that, to get approval on the standard of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out samples to firms with previous commercial ties with Miteni, such as BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC. Since early 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, producing chemicals that will be utilized for agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, colorants, cosmetics and additional goods. Environmental Oversight Investigations have shown that concentrations of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are alarmingly high, particularly around production sites. But although global focus is growing, in India the issue is not yet a policy priority. “Examining the rules, [Pfas] is not present in those standards. It’s unacknowledged by the Indian government as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the academic institution. “Independent research groups across India have performed research in various regions. But this work are restricted in range, and there are still only a handful.” Regional Consequences Parineeta Dandekar, head of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “has a poor ecological history”. After it was established in 1986, “the livelihood of fisher folk communities in this area totally deteriorated,” she said. The chemical district is dependent on a shared effluent treatment facility that has been frequently criticized. “The local villages have consistently reported that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a frequent event in rural Maharashtra state, the plant fails to operate and industries discharge polluted water directly into the streams.” Environmental authorities have sent several warning letters to the plant in recent years. International Ramifications In the EU, the European Chemical Agency is examining a plan to prohibit the production, importation and utilization of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This scrutiny may be driving the sector to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the academic institution. “I think that this issue should be investigated, because the reality that Miteni’s operations, patents and equipment have been relocated to a nation like India should prompt consideration, minimally, on the influence that these multinationals have to move in nations where there is evidently a lowering of standards in terms of ecological safeguards.” Ongoing Risks Miteni has closed down, but the firm’s harmful impact lives on – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects associated with Pfas production are likely to affect communities that are facing an hazardous setting for generations. “The area has experienced sufficient environmental destruction by now,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms establish presence, it’s always a risk.”