🔗 Share this article To Which Location Will a European Manufacturing Facility Which Polluted Drinking Water Go Next? To India The dense tropical forest and reddish-brown hills of Lote, located on India’s western shoreline, give way to a modest rise where a industrial facility stands under the open sky. The factory is largely newly built, but its machinery is far from new: it comes from the defunct Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 after one of the worst environmental scandals in the nation’s modern record: after years of manufacturing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was prosecuted for polluting water sources in an region inhabited by 350,000 people. In June, previous company leaders were convicted at the Vicenza court of causing environmental pollution and additional offenses and given prison sentences, which they are expected to appeal against. Understanding PFAS: Toxicity Levels and Exposure Routes And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its intellectual property and processes – everything needed to manufacture Pfas – is now here in Lote Parshuram MIDC, a large industrial zone thousands of miles distant, sandwiched among villages and wooded areas. And the plant has recently begun to produce forever chemicals again. A Toxic Legacy Previously recognized for its specialism in creating methods for specialty compounds, Miteni is now notorious for the toxic legacy it bequeathed. In 2011, scientists found exceptionally elevated concentrations of Pfas in the facility’s effluent. Numerous of inhabitants had been exposed through drinking water. The worst-affected were Miteni’s employees. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its fluorinated chemical department, displayed among the top levels of PFAS documented in human blood. “When the story came to light, I reviewed a list of medical conditions associated with Pfas, and found out I had them all,” says Ermetti. Ex-employee Ilario Ermetti had elevated levels of PFAS in his blood. High levels of Pfas in the bloodstream are associated with higher chances of malignancies, heart conditions, organ impairment, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent surgical operation. Community Concerns Michela Piccoli, 51, a nurse and activist with Mamme No Pfas, started organizing after discovering her children’s blood showed elevated amounts of forever chemicals. When she found out that Miteni’s patents and equipment were being transferred to India, she was stunned. “As mothers, as females, our concern has grown,” she said. “Since our kids are the children of all.” Business Shift Following Miteni’s insolvency, its assets were bought in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a branch of the Indian chemical company Laxmi Organic Industries – the only bidder in the open sale. By early 2023, all the equipment was travelling on freight ships heading to Mumbai. At the same time, Laxmi was boasting of its new acquisition to shareholders. Records of investor gatherings indicate that Laxmi’s executives minimized environmental concerns, with its president, Harshvardhan Goenka, declaring that Miteni was “operating lawfully according to European standards”. Goenka is one of the three men on the directorate of Laxmi Organic the Italian branch, a company founded in 2021. Also included is Antonio Nardone, the last chief executive of Miteni, who was found guilty of environmental pollution and financial misreporting at the June trial and sentenced to six years and four months in prison. Per a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was traveling for work to India prior to the company went bankrupt. While Laxmi purchased Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the ecological review for the construction of the factory in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the firm was already intending to start producing fluorochemicals compatible with Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries did not respond to requests for comment. Growth Plans By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy explicitly spelled out the objective to “acquire the customer base of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the manufacturing of PFAS and fluorochemicals. Logistics data show that, to get approval on the quality of the compounds, in 2024 Laxmi started sending out samples to firms with previous commercial ties with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC. From the beginning of 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, manufacturing substances that will be utilized for agrochemicals, medicines, dyes, beauty products and additional goods. Environmental Oversight Studies have shown that concentrations of forever chemicals in the ecosystem are worryingly elevated, particularly around production sites. But even though global focus is growing, in India the issue is not yet a policy priority. “If we look at the regulations, [Pfas] is absent in those standards. It’s unacknowledged by the national authorities as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an ecological scientist at the academic institution. “Autonomous study teams across India have performed research in different states. But this work are restricted in range, and there are still only a handful.” Local Impact Parineeta Dandekar, head of the regional environmental group, says the Lote Parshuram manufacturing zone “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was set up in 1986, “the income source of fishing populations in this area totally deteriorated,” she said. The industrial area is served by a centralised wastewater treatment plant that has been frequently criticized. “Nearby communities have consistently reported that it’s malfunctioning,” said Dandekar. “When there is no electricity, a common occurrence in the countryside, the facility fails to operate and industries discharge contaminated effluent straight into the waterways.” Environmental authorities have sent multiple notices to the plant in the past few years. Global Implications In the EU, the regulatory agency is reviewing a plan to ban the production, import and use of over ten thousand persistent compounds. This scrutiny may be pushing the industry to the global south, per Claudia Marcolungo, a professor of environmental law at the University of Padua. “I think that this matter should be investigated, because the fact that Miteni’s production, patents and equipment have been transferred to a nation like India should prompt consideration, minimally, on the power that these multinationals have to relocate in nations where there is clearly a lowering of standards in terms of ecological safeguards.” Persistent Threats Miteni has closed down, but the company’s toxic legacy continues – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The medical effects associated with Pfas production are expected to impact communities that are facing an unsafe environment for generations. “The area has experienced sufficient environmental destruction already,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies move in, it’s always a risk.”