🔗 Share this article To Which Location Will a European Manufacturing Facility That Contaminated Drinking Water Go Next? Heading to India The lush tropical forest and rust-red hills of Lote, located on India’s west coast, lead to a modest rise where a factory looms under the open sky. This industrial unit is largely newly built, but its machinery is not: it comes from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni closed down in 2018 following among the most severe ecological controversies in the country’s recent history: after decades of producing Pfas forever chemicals, the company’s management was prosecuted for contaminating water resources in an area inhabited by 350,000 residents. In June, its former executives were convicted at the local tribunal of environmental damage and additional offenses and sentenced to jail, which they are expected to appeal against. What are PFAS, how toxic are they and how do you become exposed? And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its intellectual property and methods – everything needed to produce forever chemicals – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave almost 4,000 miles away, wedged between local communities and groves of trees. And the plant has just started to produce forever chemicals again. An Environmental Burden Previously recognized for its expertise in developing processes for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now notorious for the toxic legacy it bequeathed. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high levels of PFAS compounds in the plant’s wastewater. Numerous of residents had been exposed through potable water. The most impacted were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who was employed for years in its fluorinated chemical department, showed among the top levels of Pfas documented in human blood. “When the story came to light, I looked at a catalog of health issues related to PFAS, and found out I had them all,” says Ermetti. Ex-employee Ilario Ermetti had elevated levels of PFAS in his blood. Elevated concentrations of Pfas in the bloodstream are associated with higher chances of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, liver and kidney damage, fertility issues and additional ailments. 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 discovering her children’s blood showed high levels of forever chemicals. When she found out that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being transferred to India, she was stunned. “As mothers, as women, our concern has grown,” she said. “Since our kids are the children of all.” Business Shift Following Miteni’s insolvency, its holdings were acquired in 2019 by a pharmaceutical firm, a branch of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the public auction. By the start of 2023, the complete machinery was being shipped en route to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its recent purchase to investors. Transcripts of shareholders’ meetings indicate that Laxmi’s executives downplayed environmental concerns, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “doing everything legally according to EU regulations”. Goenka is one of the three men on the directorate of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a entity founded in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was convicted of ecological offenses and financial misreporting at the recent court case and sentenced to six years and four months in jail. Per a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was taking business trips to India prior to the company went bankrupt. Although Laxmi purchased Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the construction of the factory in Lote shows that in March 2018 the company was already intending to start producing fluorinated compounds compatible with Miteni’s product list. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer requests for comment. Growth Plans By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy clearly outlined the goal to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and become a leader in the production of PFAS and fluorochemicals. Logistics data show that, to secure validation on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing samples to firms with past business relationships with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC. From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, producing chemicals that will be used in pesticides, medicines, colorants, beauty products and additional goods. Regulatory Context Studies demonstrate that concentrations of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are worryingly elevated, particularly around manufacturing facilities. But even though global focus is increasing, in India the issue is not yet a policy priority. “If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is absent in those standards. It’s not recognised by the Indian government as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Autonomous study teams across India have conducted studies in various regions. But this work are limited in scope, and there are still very few of them.” Local Impact Parineeta Dandekar, head of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was established in 1986, “the livelihood of fishing populations in this area totally deteriorated,” she said. The chemical district is dependent on a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been frequently criticized. “Nearby communities have always stated that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a common occurrence in rural Maharashtra state, the facility cannot function and factories release contaminated effluent straight into the waterways.” 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 proposal to ban the production, importation and use of more than 10,000 persistent compounds. This scrutiny may be pushing the industry to the developing nations, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the University of Padua. “I think that this matter should be examined, because the fact that Miteni’s production, patents and machinery have been transferred to a country like India should prompt consideration, at the very least, on the power that these global corporations have to move in nations where there is evidently a race to the bottom in terms of ecological safeguards.” Persistent Threats Miteni has shut down, but the company’s toxic legacy lives on – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts associated with PFAS manufacturing are expected to impact populations that are facing an unsafe environment for years to come. “That region has seen enough environmental destruction by now,” says Dandekar. “Should additional hazardous firms move in, it’s perpetually concerning.”